The not so magical land of America

Chapters

Before the Night
A Goddess Dethroned
The Longest Day
Applejacked
The Party
The After Party
The Princess is a Part Timer
In Dreams
What Lies Over the Rainbow
Alternate Ending
Alternate take: What if somepony else had arrived?
Ruby part 2
Prologue (rewritten)
Epilogue

Before the Night

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A Goddess Dethroned

Eight PM. That's what Pete's cell phone said when he checked it. Seven full hours of sleep, and odd dreams. Part of him wanted to explain away the ponies he was sure he had seen as a dream, or a sleep deprived hallucination. But he could hear the TV from his room, along with general clatter. He groaned loudly, and got out of bed. Putting his glasses on, he opened the door of his room and into the main of the apartment.

He was greeted by a sight so full of chaos Discord himself would shed a tear of pride. Rarity, in her attempt to quell her distaste for the human's living space, had pulled everything out and away and was rearranging them however she saw fit. Not stopping until she found the exact way she wanted it and loudly declaring “Fabulous,” before moving on. Pete opted to leave her alone, as any kind of decorating sense was better than his complete lack of one. Even if it was a woman's … or rather a mare's in this case.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash were investigating human entertainment via the large television. The purple unicorn had the remote in her magic grasp and was casually flipping through channels, occasionally stopping on one or two for a while and taking notes. Behind her, sitting on the couch, was Rainbow Dash. The sky blue mare stood out on his black-blue, curb- side-rescue couch, and was notably the only one on it.

Fluttershy was nearby, trying to stay as out of sight as possible. She seemed very daunted by the large buildings in the distance, and more so at the idea that, if they were seeing those buildings from so high up, that meant they were at least that high up. As Pete thought about it, he realized that his actions earlier that day had been very Fluttershy-esque, the hiding and panicking. She had always been one of the ponies he'd thought himself the least like, next only to Pinkie Pie, but his actions had proven otherwise.

Finally, he looked across the room, suddenly wondering where the pink party pony was. She and Applejack were looking through his fridge, a trash can between them, the doors wide open. Pete watched with curiosity, which quickly turned to shock, as they pulled out several pounds of hamburger and casually dumped it into the waiting bin. His mouth gaping slightly at the sight, the human dashed across the room with speed he was unsure he had. Bounding over whatever object Rarity had been levitating, and causing Twilight and Rainbow to blink as he passed by, wondering what they'd just missed.

“What the HELL do you think you're doing?!” Pete was gasping for air, the length of his apartment being more than a casual sprint. Still, the anger in his tone was not unnoticed.

“Ya know there's meat in here, right?” Applejack asked, looking at the human with utter disbelief that a creature could consume meat. “Like, other livin animal kinds of meat?”

“Is there another kind,” Pete half asked, in a sarcastic manner. “Look, I'm an omnivore,” he pulled open his mouth and pointed out his sharper canines, “I need meat to LIVE.” He strained the live part. Pete wasn't a huge fan of vegetarian diets, even if his consumption of meat would upset his surprise guests. “Look,” he said calmly, noticing the farm pony's apprehension, “It's cow meat, and here cows don't talk. I'm not even sure they think really, just kinda eat grass... and poop.”

Applejack looked back in the freezer at the few remaining packages of meat with worry. She didn't like the idea of living with a creature that might decide she and her friends were dinner. This was quickly brushed aside, however, as Celestia reentered the room. The sound of the doors on the far, far, FAR, other side of the room caught Pete's attention. He watched as the regal alicorn entered, shutting the door to the room behind her with magic.

“I see you're awake,” she called out calmly.

“I thought Fluttershy was supposed to tell you all not to go outside,” he replied, a hint of resentment in his voice.

“I didn't think there would be any humans on the roof of such a large structure at this hour, and I was right. Though there seem to be many of you out on the streets. There's also much more light than I would have anticipated.”

Pete stepped forward and nodded, “Yeah. Light pollution is actually kind of a big deal. The government spends tons of cash on all sorts of projects, but for a lot less we could enjoy the night sky in the city just as well as someone could in the dark country side. Not that many care. The darkness is still considered scary thanks to primal fears in the back of the mind, course the predators now are more likely thieves than animals.”

“You speak as though you do not fear the dark,” Luna chimed in.

“I don't really. The darkness itself isn't frightening, just what could be hiding in it. If you know how to work in it, the dark can be your best friend. However, again, usually it's thieves or worse that use the dark to their advantage.” Pete saw Luna's face fall a little, then quickly said, “I'm far from the only one to think like this though. There are many, many people that find the night to be a place full of creativity and intimacy. I- … hold on.”

Pete moved back across his apartment and disappeared into his room for a minute. When he emerged he held in his hand a laptop, though the ponies had no idea what it was. He seated himself on the floor in front of the couch, with Rainbow on the couch behind him on the left, and the others slowly encircling him. Within moments he pulled up an image of Van Gogh's “Starry Night.” He showed the screen to Luna, who stared in wonder.

“This is what Vincent Van Gogh, a famous painter, saw when he looked at the night sky. Not a blanket of cold darkness and despair, but a varied light show of hues and color. A display that tantalized the senses to anyone that cared to actually look and appreciate the beauty. At least, that's what I think, not only of the painting, but of the night itself. You just have to stop and really think, take it in, see it and suddenly it's something completely new.”

A few of the ponies were impressed with the painting, except Rainbow, who scoffed slightly. Applejack was still in the kitchen area, deliberating on tossing the remaining meats. The one that mattered though, the one that Pete was trying to score brownie points with, Luna, was absolutely taken back. The Princess of Night was half to tears of joy, her lower lip shaking slightly, and a smile spread on her face. A moment later she was crouched with her forelegs around the human's neck, hugging him tightly.

“Thank you, human! This is a most wonderful gift,” she literally cried. As the dark blue alicorn pulled back she wiped a few tears from her eyes.

“It's nothing at all,” he replied, “It's not like I painted this, I just shared it.”

Luna smiled, “But the words you spoke, they were your own?” Pete nodded. “That was just as important. To command language at a moment's notice like that is nothing short of wordsmithing, a rare and valuable skill for any. Do not doubt that what you have shared here has been anything short of wonderful dear … I have just realized, we do not know your name!” Luna's face turned to complete shock at this discovery. “We have been guests in your home for hours now, and it has occurred to none of us to find out the name of our gracious host! Please, excuse us, we should have asked sooner.”

Pete was flustered at the barrage of compliments and flattery. Many of which he hardly felt deserving of. He was just showing off to his fan favorite pony, and his 'wordsmithing' was his college English degree in action. As for gracious, his actions the previous day were still burned into his mind. He was anything but gracious. Still, they should at least know his name.

“It's Pete D. Powell,” he said, looking at Luna, “Just Pete is fine, by the way.”

“Well, Pete,” Luna responded, smiling, “Thank you, from the depths of my heart.”

There came a sudden gasp from Pinkie Pie, who began bouncing excitedly. “OHMYGOSH! We have the same initials!”

Pete blinked at this outburst and did a mental check. Pete D. Powell, Pinkamena Diane Pie. A moment more passed as this registered in his mind and his jaw slowly dropped. How many years was he a brony and only just now, with the mare herself in front of him, did he figure this out? It was appalling to say the least. Pinkie noticed his look and slowed to a stop.

“You don't like it?”

“It's not that,” Pete assured her, “It's just... weird. I knew about you all for a long time, a LONG time. Several years, and I never noticed that.”

“Yes,” Celestia said, rubbing her chin with a hoof, “You did mention something about us being a cartoon. I've been wondering about that myself for quite some time now. Would you care to elaborate?”

“On one condition.” Pete held up a finger to emphasize his point. “I want to know how you know that I'm a human.” Shock swept through the group, even Celestia's jaw fell slightly. “See, you called me human before you could have figured out what my species was called. You knew what I was.”

Celestia closed her mouth and looked at the young man. He was sharp, much more than she'd expected. She slipped up once and he'd picked it up. Just a moment ago she'd had to reevaluate the human, acts of kindness towards her little sister rarely went unnoticed by the elder, and his method of choice had proven eloquence and a level of intellect. This now proved that he could use that intelligence for other purposes. So Celestia debated internally. After what felt like forever, she began.

“A long time ago, in our homeland of Equestria, humans lived happily with the other races of our world.” Another ripple of surprise moved through the group, even causing Applejack to abandon the kitchen and trot over to listen. “Of all the races they were the most fit for nightly duties. They were not only easily adaptable for it, but thrived in it. However, they lived under constant scrutiny. They were not as strong as an earth pony, lacked the speed and flight of a pegasus, and their hands were nothing compared to a unicorn's magic. They were the bottom of the barrel of the sentient races.”

“There was one thing they exceeded in; however, it wasn't good. They were masters of deception; lying and were quick to corrupt. On the other side of the coin though, they were the most capable of passion, and love. This often led them down dark roads, forcing others into their own views of right and wrong, loving with so much of their heart, mind, and soul that being removed from the person or creature of affection caused them to nearly snap. Equestria was a much more dangerous place back then, and the guard could not be everywhere. Accidents happened, and blame was shifted to the ponies whose lands the humans had inhabited. Eventually it grew to unacceptable scales. Humans began their own kind of retaliation, the end result sometimes being nearly catastrophic, and often involved bloodshed. Our ancestors, thousands of years past, met with the leader of the humans to try and make an arrangement. The human leader was barely more than a figurehead, however, and he pleaded for their banishment.”

“With a great deal of difficulty the human leader got what he wished. The human's banishment was delivered via magic, a potent spell that left our ancestors, the king and queen at the time, exhausted for weeks. As soon as they were well they set out to erase human kind from the world. Removing any trace mention of them in books, lore, and even art. Some things were too precious to deface, and were locked away. Over the years a few have found hints, but since humanity was removed from Equestria there was no evidence. Humans became legends, tales told in taverns late at night by old folks.”

The room sat in wonderment at this story. All but Pete. Pete laughed cynically on the inside, everything he'd said had essentially been proven. Humans were too evil for Equestria. It hurt, but often the truth does. He didn't know how long the ponies would stay, but when they left he knew how he would feel, empty, envious, and spiteful. The same as if they'd never shown up.

With a long sigh, Pete stood up and walked over to his TV. Plugging the HDMI cable from his Playstation into his laptop, he navigated to his stash of MLP episodes before stopping. He could pick anything, even something from the future. Sparing a quick glance at Twilight, he discounted anything past season 3. She didn't have any wings. Rubbing his forehead with his left hand, he turned to face the ponies in his crouched position.

“What was the last major event to happen?” He tried to sound somewhat casual.

“What do you mean?” Celestia asked, a brow raised.

“Well … okay see, if the show is an exact, or even rough, parallel to your world, then it's possible that I've got the future stored on my computer.”

Pete said this with slight apprehension in his voice and, better, to a crowd of ponies that suddenly went bright eyed at the idea of knowing the future. It was a rare opportunity after all, and while it was obvious that many of the mares considered asking a question, only one actually did. In a split second Rainbow Dash, who had been half prone on the couch, shot up and was face level with Pete. Her hooves somehow grasping the neck of his shirt and holding him in place like a bully would his victim, but with a look of glee on her face.

“Do I become a Wonderbolt?!” She shouted this with such excitement on her face that Pete couldn't help but smile, causing her own smile to widen.

“I-I can't say,” he said, quickly breaking eye contact, but still grinning at her face.

“Sure~” she chuckled, her smile almost breaking her face with its sheer size.

“Okay,” Pete chuckled, “So, I need to know something major that happened recently. Like, it's obvious that the girls here have defeated Nightmare Moon,” looks of shock registered on the mare's faces, “so something like that. Some event that could have been more catastrophic than it was.”

“Would you perhaps mean the recent changeling invasion of Canterlot during the royal wedding?” Luna asked slowly.

“Yup, that works,” he nodded.

Selecting the season one folder, he opened up “Griffon the Brush off” and let it run. It was a tense twenty something minutes for all. The ponies were shocked at the sight, it was as though someone had recorded the entire event without their knowledge. Many gasps were had, mostly from somepony wondering if they had really looked like that on that day, or if that was actually what they'd done or said. It was a jarring experience for the mares. However, Pete slowly loosened up over the course of the episode, even smiling a few times. This change was noted by Celestia, who continued her evaluation of their host.

As the episode drew to a close, Pete got up and selected something edgier, to illustrate his point of knowing their world. The season two opener. No one was left undisturbed this time, and worse a kind of fear lingered in the air. Discord's appearance caused everypony to gasp, and sent Celestia into a minor shock, almost ready for the cartoon to come to life, as the real Discord might have done. When the episode ended the silence was deafening, consuming. The tension was palpable, and even the Princesses were left speechless. After several minutes, Pete broke the silence.

“Well,” he cleared his throat, “In his defense, Tom was a pretty awesome rock.”

Rarity's mouth gaped open, a retort obviously in the works, but the response died suddenly and the mare simply stormed out of the room and onto the roof. Most of the others laughed, Rainbow the hardest, and Applejack the least. The tan farm pony's ears went flat as the fashionista stormed out of the room and she sat on her haunches giving Pete a look of despise.

Celestia remained neutral, but continued her silent evaluation of the human. While his joke may have been hit and miss with those around him, it was obvious his intention was to break the rising tension the room held. Seeing Discord had proven to shake everypony, even the Princesses. The alabaster alicorn kept eying the human more and more with each new action he made. For every hate filled word he'd spoken against his kind he turned around and shown the opposite, though not consciously perhaps. The princess had seen how seriously Pete felt about what he said. He seemed to sincerely hate both himself and humanity, at least in the moment he'd spoken about his world, though she still held doubts about it all.

Applejack stepped out after Rarity, leaving the rest of the room to recover from the giggle fit, and the pair returned after everyone had settled. The fashionista gave Pete a slight nod upon her return, the human hoped that signaled at least minor forgiveness, and quickly the room fell back to silence. While less oppressive than before it still made Pete nervous, as if he wasn't supposed to be there or was expected to leave and let the group of foreigners to discuss matters. This time it was Celestia that broke the silence.

“I can certainly see why many would consider this show childish, though things did not quite go as smoothly as we saw.”

“Don't tell me Discord actually hurt someone,” Pete half whispered, his heart quickly falling. Moments before he was laughing, smiling at the episode. Now he was on the verge of being possibly told that he was smiling while off screen ponies died.

“No,” Celestia said quickly, “There were a few minor injuries from the sudden shift, but it took us nearly a month to get weather patterns, crops, and buildings back into line.”

“What we just saw,” Twilight interjected, “Was only the confrontation with Discord. The aftermath lasted much longer.”

Dash spoke up next. “Yeah, putting the weather back in order was a pain even for me!”

“All of the animals were so afraid,” Fluttershy finished from behind the far corner of the couch.

Pete eyed his TV with a slight look of revulsion. It felt like he'd been lied to, even though he knew there was no way for the writers of the show to have known about an actual Equestria in another universe. Every illusion slowly crumbled in his mind as he mentally went through each episode and tried to predict the fallout from each conflict. How long did it take the pegasi to clear up that dragon's smog from season one? How much worse was Chrysalis' invasion of Canterlot? It almost made him sick thinking about how much he and others had enjoyed what were real conflicts for others.

“Pinkie didn't drink that chocolate rain.” The group looked at Applejack confusingly. “The Pinkie on there got distracted after we all came back together to defeat Discord. Ours didn't.”

Celestia rubbed her chin with a gilded hoof. “Perhaps our world isn't the only Equestria out there. Maybe the one 'imagined' here fared much better than we did.”

The idea both unsettled Pete and calmed him. It calmed him to think that there was still an ideal world out there, but it also meant there were far worse ones. The human rubbed his face a little bit, then stood up carefully and went to the bathroom without a word. The ponies watched in equal silence as he left the room. After removing his glasses, Pete splashed some cold water on his face and stared into the mirror. When he returned, he sat down on left end of the couch, opposite Rainbow Dash, and looked at the princesses.

“How do we get you all home?” He asked without a single ounce of hesitation.

“If we knew, we would be gone by now,” Luna said sadly.

“We looked over my student's notes on the matter,” Celestia gestured to the kitchen and the table that Pete had seen cluttered with papers, “but neither myself, Luna, or Twilight could find a fault.”

“They spent almost all that time you were asleep lookin at that stuff,” Applejack said rather defensively, “It's gonna take something more to get us gone.”

Pete rubbed his forehead in frustration. “What do we do then?”

“For now, we should rest.” The group looked at Celestia in shock. “I know, but we've done what we can for now. If I'm feeling tired from this interdimensional travel, I'm sure the rest of you are at least getting there.”

Dash stretched out next to Pete, who was surprised at how small the ponies could be. While Celestia was just over six feet, and Luna was tall enough to look him in the eyes, the rest of the ponies were around 3'9'' to four foot even. Rainbow herself was possibly the smallest of the bunch, and when she curled up on the couch like a cat, she could fit in Pete's lap. However, when standing, she was nearly up to his chest.

“I can vouch for this couch,” she said to her friends on the floor, “It's no cloud, but it's good enough.”

Once more Pete excused himself, rummaging in his closet, and returned with a cluster of various blankets and pillows. Telling his uninvited guests to work out whatever they felt would be best. Rarity was the loudest objector, insisting on sleeping in a bed, but Pete shot that down by saying his room was the only one she could not decorate. Eventually the six Elements were grouped together in a circle on blankets in the middle of the floor, a pillow to each, and Celestia took the couch, folding her legs underneath her and resting her head on the arm rest. It was a sight that Pete gaped at, confusedly, for a moment.

The human shrugged, eventually, and left the six to talk quietly amongst themselves to make himself some food. In the middle of his meal he was joined by Luna, who watched him consume a hamburger with the same kind of look a caveman might have given to a monkey eating bugs. With the food out of the way, Pete grabbed himself a soda and offered a drink to the princess. A glass of ice water later and the pair were having their own hushed talks in the middle of the night.

Luna was mostly curious about the human's history, which Pete provided his shaky knowledge of. In exchange, she told him some of Equestria's history, which she was essentially a scholar of. Rapidly he discovered that this Equestria was no perfect world, having suffered its own share of wars for stupid reasons. The main difference being the existence of two nearly all powerful beings to guide the world, which Pete had to admit would make anything better. He didn't believe much in god, but if one did exist and could just zap anything better with magic, he doubted many wars would break out.

The topic of occupation came up soon and Pete opted to show Luna his job, rather than try to explain. He quietly grabbed his laptop from the living room of sleeping ponies and guided the Princess of Night through one of his editing jobs. By the end she had to blink several times to correct her vision, and looked at Pete with slight amazement. It was no big deal to him, anyone could read and fix things, if they knew the rules. As he saw it, he was hardly important. He kept this to himself, however, and simply went to work on his latest jobs. Keeping three long term articles to edit, and having several short term, between 24-48 hours, jobs he managed to make more money than most, but still less than some.

Luna latched on to that topic, asking about the economy, and once more Pete gave what he could. 'Here's a dollar, it's worth one, I need thousands to live a month.' Luna rather quickly grasped, from his figures, that money would quickly become and issue, now that he had several more mouths to feed. She kept that to herself, however, intending to speak with her sister on the matter. There was no reason to burden their host further with their intrusion. Though he assured her he'd put a significant amount of money into savings, it did not sit right with her to take without giving something in return.

Around five in the morning Pete finished his jobs and excused himself yet again, this time to shower. He lingered for a while, thinking more than cleaning. Letting the steam of his hot shower nearly suffocate him before finishing. When he emerged, he found Luna on the couch and Celestia nowhere in sight. A short peak into his room made him sigh with exasperation. She was on the roof again. Stepping out onto the empty roof, he looked around and found her not only on the roof, but on the roof of his specific apartment. His apartment stuck out like a sore thumb, being the only one on the floor with roof access, and the block being only five rooms long. It was like someone put a single stand out Lego on top of a wall of Legos.

Climbing a ladder on the side of the wall, Pete stepped up beside Celestia and crossed his arms. The alicorn was looking out at the East, the doors to his apartment below them. It wasn't long until sunrise, and that made Pete itchy. He hated the sunlight.

“The roof again,” he sighed, “Is this going to be a thing?”

Celestia sat quiet for a moment, causing Pete to drop his facade and look at the princess with concern. She made a note of that, just before the sun started to rise on the horizon. Pete turned around and shaded his eyes, hissing audibly at the light. Slowly, carefully, Celestia spoke to him.

“Yesterday this was my job. I was up before everypony else, and I started their day. It wasn't the best job, long hours in summer, busy in winter, but it was mine. Now here I am. Those six don't need constant supervision, and the sun raises itself. Yesterday I had a kingdom, I was a goddess. Today, I'm as normal as can be.”

Pete scoffed, “Well that sounds egotistical.”

“Is it?” Celestia wondered aloud. “It's all I've ever known, Pete. Just like Applejack has only known working on her farm, or Rarity fashion. Take that away from us, what makes us special and what are we left with?”

“Magic, friends, wings, the fact you're a talking horse. ...okay, look, all joking aside, you're not suddenly useless. First off, I don't know those mares as well as watching potential futures would seem. If something starts to go off, you're my warning system. You know them, and they'll confide in you. If something is wrong, tell me and I'll fix it. As best I can anyway. And secondly, you're still their leader. You're the most respected here, so it's going to be up to you to try and keep things in line. The last thing we need is for Rainbow to decide she needs to stretch her wings outside and get sucked into a jet engine.”

After a short explanation of what a jet engine is, and what it would do to anything living, Celestia gagging, and Pete openly considering suicide as a form of repentance, they moved on. “Basically, they need you, and I do too. Not to mention that without this rune you all mentioned last night, Twilight is going to need all the magic she can get to drag you all back home.”

The alicorn princess thought on that for a long time. “Pete,” she said slightly quietly, “Do you really believe you and your kind are pure evil?”

“... Sort of? It's more like, what we've been raised to be. Ever since the days of cavemen, if that's even real any more, things have been take and keep for yourself. Saving others only when it can benefit you. Back then it was what you did to survive, but now … Now we have people that hoard money and power that could be used to help everyone, but because of that old mentality few do. They pass it on to their children, who probably end up wasting it, and then what? Nothing. It's wasted. Lining the pockets of someone else instead of feeding the hungry, housing the poor, anything. I'm not saying I have all the answers, but something just seems WRONG to me. I don't know how to fix it, and it just pisses me off.”

“I'm no saint, don't get me wrong. I'm just as guilty as the next guy, but that doesn't mean I have to like it, or myself. Hell, I'd say that I'm bottom of the barrel in terms of human goodness. Well, okay, there have been worse, but I'm not some shining example of humanitarianism.”

Celestia chuckled, “The next time you start feeling that way, remember this. You did something here that was exceptional. You took in a group of strange creatures from an alternate world, and gave them shelter. Perhaps you're not the best, but you did something good. And if the worst, in your eyes, can do good, then there's hope yet for the rest of you, and this world. Equestria is no utopia, so don't just compare them like that. It's a process that takes time, dedication, and good hearted creatures.”

Pete rubbed his face and nodded. “Yeah, I get it. I lost it yesterday. I just … I'm jealous, okay? You saw the show, all the adventure and color and stuff.”

“Yes, I did. I can see why you would be envious of such a picturesque world like that, but if that world exists it is not ours.”

“Yeah...”

Celestia turned around and nudged Pete with her flank, “I believe it's time for us to get going. I hear my little ponies stirring and there's something you over looked.”

“What?” Pete finally pulled his hand off his eyes and looked at the alicorn next to him.

“We can't eat the meat in your freezer, and you probably don't have enough soap for eight 'horses' as you said.”

Pete's heart sank, there was no way he could explain all that soap and food to the people at his local grocery store. His usual place probably didn't even stock that much. That meant a bus ride across town, and a lot of money. As he entered the apartment, he heard Pinkie Pie ask how exactly they were supposed to use his toilet, as the Equestrian version was apparently built into the floor. With an outward groan, Pete thumped his head against the wall. Today was going to be the longest day of his life.

The Longest Day

He'd left the toilet situation to Celestia, and ran out of the apartment as quick as possible. Exiting his apartment building to the streets below, a thought occurred to Pete. There was no way he could use public transportation for the massive amount of goods he was about to get. He was looking at a shopping trip of massive proportions, which meant his least favorite thing of all. Driving.

Fishing the keys out of his pants pocket, he unlocked the door to his mid 2000's sedan, purchased cheaply several years ago, and sat. He sat for at least five minutes, keys in, engine off. Finally, after a deep soul searching, he started the car, and went on his way. The traffic was surprisingly light for a week day, and there wasn't a line at the ATM drive through. Pulling out the daily maximum of $800, he made his way to a Wal-Mart.

The vegetables he grabbed were chosen completely at random, simply things he'd seen in salads. A few things that contained no meat, and weren't vegetables as well were picked up as well. Eggs, milk, cereal, basics. Of course, even as he shoved several rows of body wash and shampoo into his cart, he realized how ridiculous he looked. The lady running the checkout line gave him a solid reminder of that, as did the family he passed on his way back to his car. Having to put several bags in the back seat only solidified his dislike of this particular day.

Meanwhile

Twilight, having given up on her notes after only a half hour due to hunger, was next to Rainbow Dash in front of the couch. The unicorn had found several programs that involved human science, history, and more, and had taken to flipping between several of them. Dash, on the other hoof, was bored to the point of tears. Eventually giving up the idea of finding more awesome shows like that “Terminator” one, as long as Twilight had the controls, she got up and grabbed one of the books off Pete's shelf.

Pinkie Pie was cleaning up bits of the kitchen, mainly the oven and stove, while Fluttershy wiped down the counters and table with a damp rag. Applejack had asked them about their chosen activities, the pair responding that it didn't seem fair to be living there and do nothing, which had riled the farm pony for some unknown reason. Pinkie shrugged it off, but Fluttershy was worried. She raised animals, carnivores and omnivores weren't that scary, but Applejack seemed to be more than irritated at the human. Surely by now she would be over the fact that he had to eat meat.

Rarity was unaware of most of these things. The white unicorn had been the last to get into the bathroom that morning and was now taking her time doing what she could with the limited supplies in the room. Styling her mane had been the most difficult part, and she was absolutely going to speak with Pete about some more care products for the bathroom. With no idea when they were getting home it was important for a lady to be as prepared as possible. This thought led her down a dark road, however. For a minute, just a minute, she sat out of sight of her reflection, and cried. A lady did not actually lose control of her emotions in public, play them up, yes, overreact, sure, but a legitimate break down would be horrifying. So the privacy of the small lavatory was best. Once she'd finished, went back to her improvised beauty session. Starting with another face wash.

Celestia was once more on the roof, watching the morning sky. From her perspective, the world seemed not much different than the one she had came from. The sky was the same shade of blue, the sun just as bright, and the clouds still drifted. Not to say she saw no changes at all, the lack of pegasi pushing the clouds around, darting in and out of her vision, the sound of hooves on the streets below were replaced by a plastic clatter, and the smells were much less appealing.

It was about two hours before Pete finally returned, stepping inside with two plastic bags on each arm. Immediately Pinkie was up on him, taking the bags into her hooves and wobbling back to the kitchen with them, causing Pete to gape slightly at the sight. He told the others there were a lot more bags, and proceeded back downstairs to get them. A total of twelve bags were brought up, each taken by either Pinkie or Fluttershy. With his last trip complete, Pete kicked his shoes off as Luna walked up to him.

“A word, if I may?”

“Uh, sure, but I don't think we're going to get any alone space here. So I hope it's not sensitive.”

Luna shook her head, “No. I have found it to be … too noisy out here, and too bright honestly.”

“A problem I've had before,” Pete nodded, having been quite the night owl himself he knew the exact issue. “I'll tell you what. Since our sleep patterns are going to be roughly opposite, if you promise not to redecorate my room you can sleep in there during the day.”

“Rather a bland room than no sleep,” Luna said, just a bit quickly.

Pete gave the princess a light bow, and indicated her towards his room. She replied with her own mock bow and trotted off. After that the human stepped over to the kitchen area and began putting things away, directing the two mares as to what went where. When everything was squared away Pinkie set about making food for the ponies. It ended up just being a salad with the various things that Pete had bought, but in moments there were six hungry ponies gathered around his table.

“It's not the best. Actually its cheap crud from a global corporation, but I only bought enough to … hopefully, get us through the week. I'll find somewhere better by then.”

The ponies kept on munching, hunger overriding what they might normally have scoffed at, but a few made faces. Notably Applejack and Rarity started to eat much slower. Pete, seeing the obviously visible disgust, turned and pulled some cups out of a cabinet and filled them with water. Placing the first two next to Rarity and AJ, who downed the contents immediately.

“Well,” Rarity said, setting the glass back on the table and releasing her magic grip, “I suppose it will do for now. Better than starving at least.”

“Ah can't figure out what's wrong with it,” Applejack said, prodding the salad with a hoof, “How do ya mess up growin' vegetables?”

“It's not that they messed up. With that whole lack of magic and communication with nature thing you all have, humans have to resort to some drastic measures to keep our crops going. ...namely chemicals that kill bugs, and preservatives to keep them 'fresh'. The vegetables don't just get sent to this store either,” Pete continued, having finished giving a glass of water to every pony and refilling the two empty ones, “They ship this stuff from a few farms to stores all over the country. The only way they could keep up that kind of demand is with preservatives.”

“Don't people taste it though?” Dash asked, sliding her empty plate away, “I mean, are your taste buds dead?”

Pete laughed, “No, some do. That's why I said I'd find somewhere else to get food from in a few days. The problem with that is there's limited amounts and it's way more expensive.”

“Supply and demand,” Celestia, Rarity, Applejack, and Twilight all said within moments of each other. The strange echo causing the group to burst into laughter.

“I know, I know,” Pete said, his own giggle fit subsiding.

A few minutes later the meal was done, Pete making a simple meat and cheese sandwich for himself, and the dishes were gathered into the sink. Generally Pete did his own single dishes after every meal, but now there was a small stack, which made him wonder if it wouldn't be easier to just do them all after dinner before bed. Before he could voice this possibility, however, Pinkie started washing off a dish with a wet rag. Pete just shrugged and went along with it, drying each dish off as the pink mare handed them to him.

Pete went into the living room, the dishes finished in short order, and dropped down on the left side of the couch. Opposite from him was Rainbow Dash, the pegasus staring lamely at the droning documentary that Twilight was watching. The unicorn, seated on the floor in front of the couch, was wrinkling her muzzle at the film and glancing between the screen and a sheet of notes she'd made.

“Something wrong?” Pete asked, leaning forward slightly.

“I already found this out,” Twilight responded, levitating the remote and switching channels. “These things play a lot of repetitive information.”

“Yeah, TV, or television, is really more for entertainment purposes. Most folks get home and want to switch their brains off, not learn. So most of these educational programs are kinda bland or watered down. ...I got an idea.”

Twilight watched as Pete picked up his laptop from the other side of the room, then came back and sat next to her. He opened the lid, punched in his password and double clicked the internet. As it loaded he glanced to his side at the unicorn, who was watching the screen with rapt attention.

“This little tool,” he said, snapping Twilight out of her slight daze, “is called the internet. You type anything into this bar with these lettered keys and it'll display lots of articles and information on it.”

Twilight's eyes slowly went wide, the possibilities were endless. “D-do you think...”

Pete held the computer in front of her. “Why don't you go ahead and sit at the table in the kitchen and just use this for your research. ...just promise me you'll avoid looking up anything related to you all, Equestria, that whole subject.”

With several enthusiastic nods of agreement, Twilight snatched the laptop out of Pete's hand with her magic and trotted off to the kitchen table. The young man chuckled and sat back down on the couch, flashing a grin, and the forgotten remote, to Dash, who smiled back. Within moments they were sitting on one of the various movie channels that Pete paid for, with Kindergarten Cop playing. Not long into it, however, Rarity pulled Pete aside and brought up her desire for styling tools. Grimacing inwardly, Pete resigned and said he would get them first thing the next morning and returned to the couch.

Flopping down on the middle cushion this time and leaning his head on the back of the couch, Pete sighed and stared at the ceiling high above. His moment of introspection was cut short by a pair of hooves lightly banging on his leg and a muzzle buried next to his thigh into the couch. He looked down to the right to find Rainbow laughing loudly at some corny joke from the movie. The small pegasus was laying on her belly, wings lightly flapping, pounding his leg with her front hooves. The sight overwhelmed Pete and the human started to laugh himself, catching the attention of Rainbow Dash.

“W-what?”

“Nothing,” Pete replied, wiping a small tear out of his eye, “Just, the little wing flapping was too adorable.”

Rainbow's face puffed out in anger and she rose up to his height. Which meant only going to an actual sitting position, and looked Pete in the eyes. “What's that supposed to mean?”

“I just mean I don't think I ever saw that in the show. It's just cute.”

What followed was almost a full minute of pure, soul crushing silence accompanied by the greatest stare down ever given by a small pastel horse. Pete sat, his eyes fixed on Rainbow's, with an uneasy smile on his face, as the mare's expression turned to one of extreme dissatisfaction. Her ears went flat, her mouth was closed and expressionless, and her eyes were slowly turning to slits. What Pete did not realize was that, possibly due to her being the youngest and smallest pony of the group, Rainbow Dash hated to be called cute. Pete's mental faculties slowly shut down one by one as the glaring continued. Eventually his completely shut off brain could say only one thing.

“I-I like wings...”

Rainbow blinked, her expression turning to slight confusion. “Excuse me?”

Slowly the gears in Pete's head started to grind back into motion, and the man slapped his forehead several times with his palm, making Rainbow lean back in apprehension.

“I mean like in a way of, like, I just like them. I think wings are awesome, and that you're seriously lucky to have them,” Pete half dribbled out of his still mushy mind. “So I think it's amazing to be able to see what they do, even if it's something kinda simple. Like how they were just kinda flapping on their own.”

Rainbow's slight blush was hidden well by her fur, and she looked at the wall muttering a little “Oh” at the compliments. “W-well next time use some of those words instead of cute!”

“Duly noted.”

The light blue pegasus nodded and turned back to the movie, still too stunned to move from her new close proximity to Pete. The human was still recovering as well, his heart pounding in his chest, feeling as though he'd just averted an inter-dimensional crisis of misunderstanding. His brain was still grinding back up to speed, processing what had just happened, when Rainbow spoke again.

“S-so you, uh, you think wings are cool?” she asked, biting her lip slightly.

“Yeah,” Pete responded, his eyes getting bigger and enthusiasm showing in his voice. “Well, I mean, flight itself is awesome. Being able to fly that is. It's always been something I've wanted to try. We, that is, humans, have a lot of technology and stuff that can fly, nothing that replicates wings really, but still I always thought it'd be cool to do that. Be a pilot, fly around the world and stuff. So you being born with that ability is seriously awesome.” Rainbow had built up a steady blush again, this one more visible, but Pete seemed to not notice. “And that stuff you can do! Like the-the sonic rainboom! That's seriously just …” Pete mimicked an explosion coming out of his head, “It blows me away! I can't even … I just, it's amazing. I haven't even seen a real one too! I've only seen the kind from the show, which is probably missing a lot of detail considering how you all look. So I bet the real thing would be a thousand times more epic.”

Rainbow let out a shaky chuckle as a jolt of euphoria ran down her spine, causing her to shiver a little. Finally, she took up a slightly relaxed position and smirked. “Yeah, I am pretty awesome.”

Pete smiled back, “I know, believe me.”

Within moments the pair were back to watching the movie, but both had become acutely aware of the other. Around them the other ponies had mostly missed the little outburst, Twilight absorbed in the wonders of the digital world, Celestia back out on the roof, and Pinkie and Fluttershy in the kitchen. The only two privy to the full conversation was Applejack and Rarity, who had been talking with each other in the corner. When things went back to being quiet they shot each other glances of intrigue. Glances that turned to ones of scandal not long after.

When the movie ended, Pete lifted the remote with his left hand and started checking the guide for another good one. In the hour between his cognitive break down he'd managed to relax again, the pegasus next to him managing the same thing. The two were less than a foot away from each other, Dash had resumed her laying position, and Pete had his right leg on top of his left knee. As he continued to channel surf, his right hand, which had been propped up on the back of the couch, became semi numb and he started to move it. Passing over Rainbow's form his mind fell into auto pilot, and his hand descended to her back and began gently petting and rubbing the space between her wings.

A dozen thoughts rushed through Rainbow Dash's mind all at once, and pleasure was close to the top of the list. She knew what this normally meant, but she'd never heard of it being so relaxing. Not that she'd ever really minded a little wing touching, which Pete wasn't really doing. It was more between the wings, totally fine. Some more prudish, or shy, pegasi might have found it more of an intimate gesture, but not Rainbow. Subconsciously, a smile spread across her face and she settled down into the couch next to Pete. It took the man roughly five minutes before he came to his senses and pulled his hand off suddenly, a horrified look on his face.

“Oh jeez! I'm sorry!” He shouted and recoiled, causing the remote to fall to the floor.

“W-what?” Dash looked around, a little wild eyed.

“I was just petting you! I-I didn't mean to … ugh, crap.” Pete placed his head in his hands again and rubbed his face. “My sister has a lot of animals,” he started before Rainbow could, “So I'm used to being around things that are up on the couch and stuff and just petting them without realizing it. It must have just kicked in. I'm sorry.”

“H-hey, don't worry,” Rainbow Dash smiled reassuringly. “Nothing wrong with it. Just, uh, maybe ask next time, or give some warning.”

Pete nodded with his hands still on his face, but across the room Rarity and Applejack had entirely different expressions.

The petting incident had been the last for the day, Pete taking a trip to the bathroom not long after and then seating himself on the far left side of the couch when he returned. Dinner passed without much involvement. Pete had leftover burgers, which he ate far away from the ponies to avoid upsetting stomaches, and the ponies had more salads. Not long after dinner Luna woke up, which prompted Pete to head to bed. Bidding good night to his guests, the human closed the door to his darkened sanctuary and sighed. He had somehow hoped that living with eight magical talking ponies would be easier than it was. Pete dropped down onto his bed, removed his glasses and curled up next to the wall as he normally did. Sleep came in moments to the exhausted human, despite his nagging worries about tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the mane six were doing their own preparations for bed. The mass of blankets and pillows that had been mostly folded up and placed in the corner all day were pulled back out into several pallets, and the mares took turns using the restroom before laying down. It was in this moment, the group idly chatting about things, mostly Twilight mentioning parallels between Equestrian and human history, that Rarity brought up the incident on the couch earlier in the day.

“I hate to interrupt darling,” Rarity said to Twilight, who shown no sign of slowing down, “but there's something I'd like to ask Rainbow about.”

Twilight's face fell just a bit and a slow blush creeped up on her on her, “Oh … yeah, sure.” She had forgotten how uninterested her friends were in history and other academic pursuits.

“I wanted to ask, Rainbow, just when you became so … attached to our host?”

“What are you talking about?” The mare cocked an eyebrow at her friend. The incident largely forgotten by now.

“She's talkin about that 'petting' earlier on the couch,” Applejack said flatly.

It was Twilight's turn to raise an eyebrow. “Petting?”

Applejack nodded, “Yeah. When they were watchin movies. He started rubbing his hand on her back, and she was okay with it.”

Twilight, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie thought on that for a moment, none of them coming up with anything really wrong with it. Until Rarity spoke up again.

“It was focused between the wings ladies.”

While Pinkie and Twilight remained oblivious, Fluttershy's own wings suddenly sprung outwards and the timid mare turned crimson in the face. Twilight and Pinkie then followed suit with the blush, averting their eyes, and refocusing on Rarity.

“D-does that mean something?” Twilight asked, trying to ignore her semi aroused friend on her left.

“Ya tellin us that you, the smartest unicorn in Equestria, doesn't know about this?” Applejack kept her eyes on Twilight, however hard Fluttershy's slowly receding wingboner made it.

“I don't, though I think I can guess at the implications,” she replied, giving a tentative look to her left.

“It's fairly intimate, yes. Not really denoting anything, but certainly for somepony like Fluttershy you would need quite a bit of trust to touch there.” Rarity gave a little more elaboration, only touching briefly on the the wings being an erogenous zone, and focusing more on the level of trust even a pegasus foal would require to let something touch their back. “So, having been here hardly a day...”

“It seems kinda off, Twi.” Applejack concluded, then looked at Rainbow.

“What,” the cyan mare shrugged, “I don't think it's that big of a deal. I mean, look, we're living in his house, we can't go outside, we're already trusting him to feed us and all that, so what's one more little thing like that?” She topped it with a roll of her eyes.

“W-well, she has a point,” Fluttershy half whispered. “I-I mean, if we're relying on him to k-keep us alive already then I can see what she means.”

“It's still no reason to be gettin' all buddy buddy with him,” the farmpony retorted, her ears flat against her head. “We're gonna be leavin just as soon as Twilight and the Princesses figure this spell out.”

“Applejack has a point,” Twilight said, “But so does Rainbow. If she doesn't see the harm in it then who are we to say no? It's not like she'll decide to stay here when we leave.” Twilight laughed at that idea.

AJ sighed in defeat and laid down. “Suit yer selves, but don't say I didn't warn ya.”

“Well,” Rarity said towards Rainbow, after a moment of silence, “I was honestly curious about how he'd managed to sweet talk you into such a position.”

“He didn't really. … Well, I guess he did mention how awesome I am, but come on, that's a given.” She gave a cocky smile to her friends, “If I let everyone that brought up how awesome I am touch my wings I'd be too busy with that to get anything done.”

Twilight rolled her eyes and magically tossed her pillow at the arrogant pegasus, who responded in kind with her own pillow. The room devolved into a small pillow fight and giggles, except from Applejack who pulled her pillow over her head and sighed again. Once the pillow fight was over, and exhaustion from the day had set in the group laid down and slowly drifted off. Their first real day hadn't been nearly as bad as many of them thought, even Applejack had to admit that, and the worry and rush to return home abated somewhat from all but one of their minds.

Applejack couldn't believe how comfortable her friends had gotten. Sitting in the den of a meat eating creature twice their size, laughing and acting like they were at some casual slumber party instead of trapped in another world. Far from home, their families, other friends, it was jarring for her. Worse, Twilight hadn't spent more than a few minutes trying to figure out how to get home. It irked her so much! How could her friend just ignore her duties like that? Twilight was the one that cast the spell, MADE THE SPELL, and yet she was content to just read up about these creatures instead of find a way home.

AJ rolled over and kicked at the covers on her pallet. She was restless. Pacing the apartment all day hadn't even burned half her usual energy, and her thoughts weren't helping her get to sleep. She told herself that she'd talk with Twilight tomorrow, that's all she needed to do. The studious unicorn was known for being easily side tracked by things she found intriguing, so all she needed was a little push back on course. That was all. … She hoped.

Applejacked

“I think we need to have a talk,” was Celestia's opener to a whole cornucopia of insanity. It had rapidly came to the princess' attention over the last two days of the ponies being in Pete's house that they had become a severe financial burden on their host. She had personally scolded Rarity when the human had returned the day after his grocery shopping from yet another trip. This time for the personal care products for the fashionista. The bag of brushes, curlers, hair irons, make up, and more, had not made Celestia happy. Pete had insisted on their keeping the products, despite Celestia telling him to return them, and told them it wasn't much. The three hundred dollar receipt Luna found said otherwise.

In the few days they'd been there, with the help of Pete's computer, Luna, Twilight, and Celestia had researched the currency of the world they inhabited. While there were many things that followed their own world, gems and precious metals like gold, silver, platinum etc, the main method was paper money. After exhaustive research into the economy, and the trash can for the grocery receipt, they realized just how expensive their one week of food had been. It didn't take the trio very long to do quick math, the expense of one week times four, to see the outcome on the horizon. Thus prompting the current round table discussion.

“Ooh, ooh, ooh!” Pinkie shouted, raising a hoof. “I could bake things! It'd be just like back home, except I wouldn't be back home, but I'd be doing the same thing!”

“How would you give what you bake to customers if you can't let them see you?” Twilight asked, slightly exasperated.

Pete thought for a moment, “Well, I'd have to look into it more, but, uh, we could just ship them places. Like, delivery via the mail. We couldn't send anything like cakes, or whatever, but there's other stuff that would keep long enough to be shipped most anywhere in the states. ...maybe if the customer wants something that needs to be fresh that we could ship, like a pie or something, I dunno, then we could charge them to ship it overnight and it'd be there in the morning.”

Twilight shot Pete a skeptical look. “Would that really work?”

Pete shrugged in response as Pinkie began bouncing at the other side of the table. The other girls started tossing out their own suggestions based on their previous careers, however each had its problems. Twilight's job as a librarian and scholar wouldn't be of much use, and she was also busy trying to figure out the spell to take them home. Rainbow Dash's job controlling weather could certainly make them millions, provided that the eight magical ponies were ousted and she was allowed to fly about freely, which wasn't happening. Applejack's farming was of little use in a, relatively speaking, small apartment, and Fluttershy's home remedy veterinary style would be scrutinized in the more medical human world.

“Oh!” Twilight exclaimed, then looked at Pete. “Rarity could still make clothes! She doesn't have to be face to face with customers to make simple things and sell them. If Pinkie can sell her sweets online, Rarity could sell clothes.”

“Well, that's possible … but from what I know she wouldn't just want to make plain things,” Pete said, eying the white mare in question.

“Well,” Rarity said with a flip of her mane, “it's hard to keep focused on things that are so... so drab like your outfits. But surely not everyp- ...everyone here dresses like that.”

Pete raised a finger and stepped out the door. The ponies sat in confusion for several minutes as Pete went outside his building, down the street and grabbed some random fashion magazine from a corner store. Rarity began hyperventilating in less than ten seconds after laying eyes on the cover. By the time she'd flipped through every page she was half catatonic.

“What was in there?!” Applejack shouted, waving a hoof in front of her friend's face.

“Just LOOK!” Rarity yelled, tossing the magazine on the table with her magic on some random page.

The looks on the ponies' faces were half of disgust and curiosity. Pete's was one of sheer amusement. Human fashion had gone strange lately, and honestly you weren't in the human fashion game without being big on public appearances. Pete gave a half knowing assessment of these things, himself being an editor for several magazines without discrimination against content, and Rarity sort of nodded along.

“I guess that does make sense. Even in Equestria one does not simply produce fashion statements without attaching their name and face to them.” Rarity nodded somewhat hesitantly as she spoke, more reassuring herself than the others.

Twilight sighed, “So much for that idea.”

“Look, it's fine,” Pete raised his open hands in a form of surrender, “I have quite a bit in the bank, and I can pick up some extra stuff in my usual job to supplement my income. It shouldn't be too hard. You all just focus on getting home.”

“Ah agree,” Applejack said from across the table, “We should be focused on gettin' home instead of gettin' jobs.”

“It's not that I don't like having you all here, but you've got responsibilities back in your own world.” Pete followed up.

The next two days were yet more busy work for Pete, and his wallet, as he scurried around town buying baking goods. Tins, materials, anything that Pinkie thought she'd need. As he did so, Luna and Celestia quietly took receipts and added them up. They continued to be unamused by how much their displaced subjects were costing this human. In just over a week of them being there, they'd spent nearly two thousand dollars. Celestia was unsure what the conversion would be to bits, but they were both aware that, for the human world, this was a lot.

“More to the point,” Celestia said to her sister, the pair up on the roof away from the others below preparing for sleep, “He continues to buy these things without complaint.”

Luna nodded, “True, but also, perhaps he sees it in his best interest to do these things. He has seen, roughly, what our powers are. Maybe he fears what we could do.”

“That doesn't make sense. If that were the case, why did he refuse to return the cosmetics that Rarity asked for? I personally told him to take them back, yet he insisted she keep them.”

Luna paused in thought. “What do you think then, sister?”

Celestia too stopped and thought for a minute before responding. She had been studying Pete for the past week, yet every time he turned around he confounded her. There were concrete aspects of him that she could pin point, but his actions were wild, varied, confusing. “I need more time,” was all she said. To which Luna nodded.

Below, in the apartment, the mares and Pete were getting ready for bed. Rarity and Fluttershy were talking in the corner, the fashionista's hair filled with curlers. Twilight was in the kitchen, still on the internet, while Pinkie bounced around her putting baking supplies away. Pete and Rainbow were on opposite ends of the couch, a movie coming to an end, and AJ had just entered the bathroom. It was at this moment, the credits rolling, that RD looked over at Pete appraisingly. Pete looked back, confused.

“You, me, right now.” Rainbow said, lifting herself off the couch with her wings and hovering in the center of the room.

Pete blinked. “Um, what?”

“C'mon!” Rainbow Dash half shouted, “I keep seeing these movies and guys getting exploded and tossed out of buildings. I have to know if you're actually that tough.”

Pete rubbed the back of his head and laughed. “Are you kidding? I'm not that tough. Maybe those guys are, but not me.”

Dash just smirked. “Prove it.”

With a heavy sigh, Pete stood up and got opposite Rainbow Dash, rolling his shoulders to loosen up in the process. Leave it to Dash to want proof of someone's weakness. The pegasus gave a backwards nod when they were both ready, challenging Pete to move first. And move first he did. Cautiously he reached forward and grabbed Rainbow's left hoof tightly. The cyan pegasus, also curious, tried to tug herself free, quietly testing the grip of hands. Finding her hoof trapped, she yanked hard, causing Pete to stumble forward. She then flew around him, hoof still caught, and wrapped her free foreleg around his neck.

“Too slow,” she chuckled.

“Oh, gods,” Pete groaned at the familiar phrase.

Before Rainbow could inquire about his groan, Pete performed a quick bowing motion, flinging the choke-holding pegasus off his back, putting her back to his front. Smiling, he let go of her hoof and wrapped his own arm around her neck in a hold. Dash rolled her eyes and quickly hit Pete in the stomach with her back hooves. The force caused him to step backwards putting space between the two again. This space didn't last long though, as Pete lunged forward yet again, this time wrapping his arm around the lower end of Dash and tugging her to the ground with all of his weight. Rainbow, unprepared for the sudden increase in weight, dropped along with Pete to the floor. Once there, however, she tried to regain her flight, with little success as the human continued to roll her towards her back, pinning her wings.

It was at this point, Rainbow stuck to the ground, wings useless, hooves pushing on every part of Pete's upper half, looking for a way to dislodge him, that Applejack trotted out of the bathroom. Glancing around the room she saw her friends ignoring what was obviously, to her, an assault on Rainbow, and became furious. In moments she was in prime bucking position, her front half tight like a coil, backlegs off the ground. The next moment Pete was flung off Rainbow Dash, across half the apartment, and landed in a heap near Rarity and Fluttershy next to the doors to the roof. With a light shudder and a groan he tried to stand up, but found his muscles lacked the will.

“AJ! What the heck?!” Rainbow shouted, lifting herself off the ground.

“He was attackin' you!” the farm pony retorted.

“Attacking!? We were wrestling! You know, roughhousing? Me and you do it all the time!”

“Well that's not what it looked like to me!”

Rainbow rolled her eyes, “Did you see anypony else getting upset?” There was silence as AJ looked around the room, her friends focusing on Pete's still motionless form. “And now you've probably killed him!”

“I'm not dead,” Pete half yelled, “Just hurt.” He sat up experimentally, and groaned again. “A lot. That was a hell of a hit.”

“See, he's fine.” Applejack said definitively.

Rainbow just groaned and trotted over to Pete. “You sure you're okay? I've been bucked by AJ before … you don't normally just get up after.”

Pete gave a little smile, “Well, we were trying to find out if humans were that tough, right? Question answered, we can be pretty damn durable.”

To the side of them, Applejack trotted out the door onto the roof, Pete hoped to cool off, while Rainbow Dash stretched her wings out and winced. “I think I pulled something when you got knocked off me,” she grumbled.

Pete chuckled and extended his hands, “Here, turn around.”

“Why?” Rainbow blushed slightly.

“I have been told by various people that I've got some kind of magic hands.” Within seconds half the room was looking at Pete. “Without any kind of formal training, many people have told me that I'm a rather adept masseur.”

Rainbow gave a cocky smirk, “Oh yeah? Try it.”

Pete cracked his knuckles, causing Rarity and Fluttershy to flinch, and then started to feel down Rainbow's back. Gently prodding with his finger tips, he made his way to the spot between her wings that he'd pet the other day. Frowning slightly he began to gently rub in counterclockwise motions with his fingertips, the left ones between her wings, his right hand slightly lower. After a moment of grimacing on Rainbow's part, she suddenly relaxed with a deep exhale. Her wings extended to their full length, a surprising four feet by Pete's best judgment, and then both the wings and mare laid down on the ground. Pete's hands followed her down as the mare beneath his fingers let out a deep, contented sigh.

Fluttershy moved backwards, even further from Pete's sight as her own wings slowly unfurled, as Rarity stepped forward. The white mare's eyes were glued on Pete's fingers as they moved. After watching for a bit she moved up to Rainbow's face, the pegasus half lost in the sensation as her wings flapped gently of their own accord.

“Is he really that good?”

Rainbow focused her eyes and looked up. “Oh yeah,” was all she could say before relaxing again.

Beneath his fingertips, and her fur and layers of skin, Pete could feel Rainbow's muscles. On the outside there wasn't much difference between the ponies, other than height and maybe a little chub on a couple of them. When in physical contact that changed though. Pete could feel how toned the pegasus was, definitely an athletic body, especially around the wings. He could feel the individual muscles tense and relax as he moved up and down her back with his hands. It was a unique sensation for him and, unknowingly to him, Rainbow. Pete finished by gently running his palms from the back of her mane to her tail, smoothing the fur he'd displaced with his fingers, and gave her a light pat on the back.

“How's that?” he asked, a light smirk on his face.

Rainbow let out a low moan. “Just five more minutes,” she said, sleepily.

Rarity took another look at her friend, then to their host. “Well,” she started hesitantly, “I-if you don't mind...”

“Go on, lay down,” Pete said with a roll of his eyes.

“Well, it seems you come highly recommended at least,” the alabaster mare responded, laying down a couple of feet away from Rainbow.

Once more Pete began to work his fingertips in a counterclockwise motion, moving his hands down Rarity's back. This time, however, his recipient was giving instructions. Obviously this was not the first massage she had received, and was not afraid to give orders when she thought necessary. Generally it was a simple “higher” or “lower” and Pete had no problems with following. It wasn't long until her commands were hardly more than whispers, however, and Pete was essentially in control again. Not that it mattered, he did roughly the same thing he'd just done to Dash, except without the focus on the wings. He also noted that, contrary to fan belief, Rarity was rather trim. Not quite athletic like Rainbow Dash, but she wasn't pudgy like Pinkie Pie had turned out to be. None of the mares were downright fat, but it did surprise Pete that Rarity wasn't the least bit squishy, certainly no marshmallow.

He finished by smoothing Rarity's fur, as he had Rainbow's, and then stood up. The fashionista muttered something, but like his previous 'client' she wasn't as conscious as she should be. Pete figured he'd either hit a literal nerve and knocked the two out, or he'd done a good job. He was banking on that second one because AJ was pissed off at him enough as it was. Despite his still aching body, he helped Pinkie Pie lay out the girl's bedding, and then retired to his room.

“Early for you, is it not?” Luna inquired as she returned from the roof, catching Pete just before he ducked into his room.

“Ask somepony else for the details,” he said with a grin, “You'll understand pretty quick.”

Soon after, Celestia and Applejack returned from outside. Applejack tossed her hat next to her pallet and laid down with a slight huff. The Princess of the Sun, however, trotted to the kitchen to talk with her sister and Twilight. After telling Luna what had transpired between the human and farm pony, Twilight told Celestia that she wanted to stay up a bit longer at the computer. Celestia, slightly worried about her student's increasingly nocturnal habits, decided to chat with her sister a bit more while Twilight worked. The idle chatting did not last long, however.

“Alright, ah need some answers.” The three in the kitchen turned to see Applejack, wide awake, enter.

“Shouldn't you be asleep?” Twilight asked, stifling a yawn.

“Ah'm used to a hard day of work, Twi. It's takin' me longer and longer to get to sleep here.”

Celestia chuckled, “Perhaps then you can do a bit more than pace idly around tomorrow.”

AJ looked at the princess flatly. “No offense, Your Highness, but it's not like there's much to do around here. Unless y'all count gettin' molested.”

“Applejack,” Twilight sighed, “A massage is NOT molestation.”

“Twilight is right,” Celestia added. “Before their banishment, humans were rather adept at relaxing other creatures with their hands. There's evidence to suggest that they invented it, and what we have now is pale by comparison. Even then, it was not uncommon to see casual friends of humans getting such treatment. History claims that humans held many jobs that would surprise you, Applejack.”

“Like what?” she asked defiantly.

“Well, they used to be fantastic foalsitters. In fact, have you ever noticed the strange way we hold our young?” Applejack sat on her haunches in thought. “Now,” Celestia continued, “Imagine if you had hands, or better, imagine it was Pete.”

For a minute, Applejack's anger faded, and a slight smile crossed her face. It wasn't Pete she was thinking about, not specifically, but she could see what Celestia meant. This moment was shattered by Twilight gasping loudly and staring at the computer screen. AJ blinked and stepped closer to see, as the royals on the other side of the table moved to get a look as well.

It was an image of Rainbow Dash. Highly detailed, down to the fur of her coat. She was straddling the lap of a human, who was exposed. It took the group a moment to register the image. It was sexual in nature, very blatantly sexual. In that moment everything Applejack had said felt vindicated.

Twilight clicked on the computer and was taken back to the root of the folder. “There's a folder... with each of our names on it.”

“Me?” the farmpony asked, her eyes going slightly wide.

Twilight nodded numbly in response. “Us, Cheerilee, Vinyl Scratch, Lyra, Bon Bon, Mayor Mare, Trixie, Gilda, nurse Redheart, … uh, Sunset Shimmer?” Celestia's eyes bulged for a second, but it was seen by no one. “Um, Colgate, … my, uh, my mother,” Twilight cleared her throat, “Cadence, Chrysalis, Derpy-”

“Even Derpy?!” Applejack was astonished.

“It gets worse,” Twilight muttered as she saw the end of the list.

“How?”

“Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, Babs Seed, and Applebloom...” the purple unicorn finished slowly.

Applejack didn't wait. By the time she heard the first two names she knew what the last two would be. She'd turned and started towards the bedroom on the far side of the apartment. Celestia moved first, but Luna was faster at the draw. Before AJ could get half way to her destination a blue aura enveloped her and held her off the ground. She kicked and wiggled, and grunted for a bit trying to free herself, before turning her head.

“Let me go,” she enunciated each word harshly.

“No.” Luna's response was simple and cold.

“Y'all can't keep defending him knowing what's in there! WE should never have BEEN here!”

“That is precisely why I'm saying we ignore this,” Celestia said.

“You think we should ignore that he likes to touch foals!?”

With Applejack shouting it didn't take long for the other mares to wake up. In fact, other than Rainbow Dash, the other three Elements of Harmony were bolted upright at her shout. They muttered between themselves, able to see AJ floating not far from them, and then moved closer, curious about the situation.

Celestia sighed, now having a full audience. “Yes. As far as he should have ever been concerned we were nothing but a figment of someone else's imagination. While the images might not be … pleasant, it still does not mean we should assault him for it.”

“Ah'm way past just buckin' him in the backside, Princess. Ah'm gonna kill him!” Applejack roared and started to thrash again in her magic bonds.

Around this point Rainbow had been woken up and was in the process of being filled in, Twilight having shown the others the computer screen and given a very brief summary. Applejack and the Princesses were still arguing as the mares that had been asleep fully caught on and started to think on this development. Of course the racket was hardly contained, and eventually Pete emerged from his room. His eyes were immediately drawn to the tan farm pony being held slightly off the ground by a deep blue aura. The other ponies focused in on him and that drew the attention of the tan mare, who began to kick and struggle once more for all she was worth.

“Ah'm gonna KILL YOU!” Applejack shouted as loud as she could.

“What the hell?” Pete blinked in confusion, looking to the other ponies for an explanation.

Twilight coughed into her hoof, blushed, and looked away. “Well,” she started, her eyes finally stopping on Celestia, “I was looking through your computer and I found some … pictures.”

“Pictures?” Pete half shouted incredulously.

“Yeah! Of all of us having sex!” Applejack shouted again. “All of us, includin' the princesses and Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, and Applebloom!”

This caused the group to react and swarm the laptop on the table, the folder for Applebloom still open and several images viewable through the thumbnail. Rarity took control of the cursor and clicked back into the main section, quickly skimming the names herself and opening a few. Pete though did not move. He stood in shock, having long forgotten his years of clopping and that folder specifically. His life had moved on, but with a mention his memories of that folder came back, sending a shiver up his spine.

“Well,” Rarity said, having skimmed several folders and images, “I must say some of these are fairly … distasteful, but I've never engaged in any of the, uh, 'activities' presented. It's more strange than that cartoon, for sure, but I'm not personally offended.”

“Y'all ain't offended that this THING was touchin' himself to your sister?!” Applejack was appalled at the idea.

“I admit that is somewhat strange, but she IS about that age, Applejack. If there were humans in Equestria and she decided to … mate with one, I certainly wouldn't stop her. So long as they actually seemed to be in love.”

“This ain't love, Rarity! This is outright porn!”

“Geez, AJ, what exactly is your problem here?” Rainbow Dash asked, floating up in front of her friend. “They're just drawings, half of them hardly even look like us, or your sister, and it's not like he's got the Cake's foals on there. I think most of us here are expecting the Crusaders to go through their first heat cycle soon.”

“S'not the point, RD! We're livin' in his house, and the whole time he's had some weird sexual fetish for us? Wrestlin' with you, havin' us all camped out in his livin' room? None of y'all find this weird?!”

“Applejack,” Pete said calmly, “ I swear I haven't had a single thought like that since you all got here. I'd completely forgotten about that stuff on my computer.”

“And that's just supposed to make it all better?” AJ shouted. “What's a human doin' having urges like that towards a pony anyway? It ain't right!”

Pete raised an eyebrow, “So dragons and ponies, griffons and ponies, zebras and ponies, that stuff just never happens?”

“T-that's different!”

“Not actually, Applejack.” The group's attention shifted to Celestia. “Humans, if you recall, were originally from Equestria. It wasn't uncommon for there to be humans within pony herds, just as it's not uncommon for the other species to be involved. While I'm some what surprised it carried down so many generations, I'm not going to say it's impossible for that idea to stay dormant inside them for so long.”

“I can understand what you're thinking though,” Pete followed up, “I mean, it wasn't exactly easy for me. Suddenly finding beings that weren't real, that only existed as two dimensional art, attractive. Especially not to the level it went to. Like a lot of folks I was outright emotionally invested in you girls' adventures, and your friends and families. It's hard to have hundreds of hours of video about someone and not feel an attachment.”

“Ah ha! So ya do have weird thoughts!” Applejack shouted in triumph.

“Not quite like that,” Pete said, crossing the room towards the laptop. “Yeah, I did, and I still kind of do, but there's a difference between these pictures that someone drew and the real thing.” Pete backed out to the main folder that hid his clop stash. “And I'm honestly sorry that you all saw this stuff. I know there's some things in there that aren't exactly normal by any means. Chalk it up to inexperience and young enthusiasm I guess.” He right clicked and hit the delete button, a box popped up informing him that the folder was too large for the recycle bin and he outright deleted it. “Now it's gone. Forever.”

“You think that makes up for it all?” Applejack twisted to look at Pete, “That doesn't solve anything! We're still stuck here in this house with some creepy guy that fantasized about not only us, but our sisters too!”

“And your brothers,” RD chuckled, causing both Twilight and AJ to whip around and scream, “What?!”

Pete blushed in response, “Uh, yeah. ...heh, I'm, uh, what humans would call 'pansexual.' I'm not attracted to one sex or another specifically, more just, uh, personality traits and stuff.”

Luna smiled, “Which would explain why you were so quickly attached to a show that seemed to be about positive emotions towards others.”

Applejack however only seethed harder. “So me, mah sister, and mah brother?! GREAT! Who next, Granny?”

Rarity cleared her throat, “Actually there was one folder...”

Applejack just stared. “Just how messed in the head are you!?”

“They were her when she was younger!” Pete shouted back defensively, though not entirely truthful.

“Ah can't believe we're stuck here with this guy! Out of all the billions of folks that are on this planet we get this one?!”

“Yeah! Out of the several other billion that would turn you in or sell you out, you get one of the few thousand to million that won't! You get one of the few that bought a thousand dollars worth of food, was more than happy to in fact, doesn't mind giving up his bed, his space, his privacy for you, and you spend the whole time skulking around and shooting him dirty looks! How DARE I!” Pete snarled at Applejack. “I apologized, Applejack. I had no way of knowing that you all were real, and I see now what I thought was innocent wasn't, but you've been a complete jerk this whole time. Even before tonight!”

“So what if ah have? Ah don't like being here, ah didn't ask to be here. This whole thing was one big mistake, but Twi seems content to just learn more about you humans instead of working on getting us home. Same with everypony else, gettin' jobs and lazing around like you do all day.”

“Applejack,” Twilight said, obviously feeling hurt, “I'm working as hard as I can, but there's something missing. Even Celestia can't figure it out.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow chimed in, “and us 'lazing around' is us trying not to be bored out of our skulls like you seem to be. It's not exactly easy for me to go from doing corkscrews at ninety miles an hour to doing nothing at all, all day long. But pushing Twilight isn't going to make her solve this thing any faster, and it's not like me or you has a better idea. It's her spell.”

Pete frowned and moved in front of Applejack, catching the mare's attention. “Look,” he said, stopping a few feet from her, “I know how pissed you are at me and this situation. I know, believe me I do, and if you think that bucking me so hard in my man bits that I never reproduce will fix it, then go ahead. Do it. Because I'm not even pretending that I'm some shining example of humanity, I've made mistakes. I've made a LOT of mistakes. When it was just pictures it was fine, but clearly that stuff on my computer was more, a lot more. And I'm not going to sneak away saying 'I didn't know, so you can't blame me.' I'll take the hit.”

“You don't know anything! Stuck here in this small box you call a house, day after day of mindless-”

“Nothing,” Pete finished, causing Applejack to blink. “That's how it feels, right? Like you're caught in an endless loop of nothing. Nothing you do matters, it's all just a waste of time until something important happens, then it's back to wasting time. That's been my life for several years now. I think that's everyone's life here. Waste time, important event, waste more time. It's a cycle and it's one that I wish I could break. I wish that I'd had even just the slightest taste of the world you're from, of having that cutie mark and knowing that every day I was doing something worth while.”

Applejack stood, dumbfounded, and thinking. He was right, that's how she felt. She hated dragging her hooves like this, getting nothing done, worried about her family. AJ was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't realize that she wasn't floating any more, Luna had let go to stare at Pete with the rest of the group. It was a foreign concept to them, feeling out of place. Their cutie marks told them what they did, gave them purpose. Humans didn't have that, and it was setting in now what that meant.

“I've looked for years for where I fit in, what makes me happy,” Pete continued, his eyes like stones. “I haven't found anything that makes me truly feel like I belong, like I have purpose. That's probably why I was so willing to make you all comfortable, and why I was so pissed off. I could have had what you all have, but I didn't. That upsets me, but also you're here. I have something that no one else does, I've been visited by interdimensional beings. Even if the rest of the world never finds out, I had a purpose. For some amount of time my existence was justified, because there's no telling what another human would have done. None of these movies or video games made me really happy, they were just bandages over a gaping wound that won't heal. Hiding the problem.”

“Shut up!” the tan mare screamed, her voice slowly cracking, “Jus' shut up. I ain't forgiving you, ah'd say you still owe us, but ah'm not gonna kill you any more. I might change my mind later, but for right now we need ya. Whether I like it or not.”

Pete nodded, “Alright. If that's everything … I'm going back to bed. Hopefully.”

Moments after Pete left, Applejack also returned to her spot on the floor and threw her covers back on. The rest of the group were wary, but slowly the adrenaline came down and they too turned in, save Luna and Celestia. The royal sisters spoke in quiet whispers for several hours, trying to figure out how to get home or ease the tensions that had arisen that night. Neither of them could come up with a solution for either problem, leaving both of them uneasy. Applejack had shown that the whole group was one massive ticking bomb waiting to go off, and Applejack had yet to finish erupting. Finding a way home was at the top of their list now more than ever. Not only for the sake of their displaced subjects, but for the sanity of their host as well.

The Party

It was the next morning, Pete realized as he dragged his aching everything outside, and was promptly blinded by the light that was pouring in from the doors to his right. With a long sigh he scanned the apartment. Twilight was in the kitchen, Fluttershy serving her coffee, while Pinkie started with breakfast. In a surprising twist, Rarity was waiting outside the bathroom this morning, the fashionista usually the first one in causing the others to wait while she styled her mane. With Rainbow sitting on the couch, Luna pushing past Pete to take her own eight hour nap, and Celestia probably on the roof, that left only AJ to occupy the bathroom. Curious, but not quite so curious as to actually ask the mare, Pete waved hello to RD, then exited onto the roof. Once there he looked at the ladder with a grimace.

“Afraid?” Celestia chided from the upper level.

Pete shook his head, “No. My everything hurts.”

Celestia teleported down to his side, with hardly a flash, and raised a brow in his direction. “Pain?”

“I think the after effects of AJ's kick,” he said as he rubbed the spot on his ass where she'd kicked him. “I was fine last night but now...”

Celestia hid her mouth behind a hoof and laughed, “Not as tough as you thought you were?”

Pete groaned loudly, “No, I'm about as tough as I expected. It just didn't show itself as fast as I thought. I figured I'd just be dead last night when I stood up; was surprised that I wasn't.”

Celestia's face fell to a more serious expression. “Speaking of last night,” she said, locking her gaze on the human.

Pete's expression followed the princess' own as he turned around and gazed at the cityscape. Celestia moved beside the human, eying him carefully. Last night's discovery had been interesting, though some parts were much more surprising. She was more surprised than anything at how the attraction to ponies had persisted in the background of humanity like it had.

“They were just pictures,” Pete said pleadingly, “No one knew you all were real, we had no way of knowing!”

“I think there are some things I should explain,” Celestia responded.

“Like what?”

The princess gave a long sigh, “Firstly, though the girls may say otherwise, you should not feel bad for being attracted to them. Humans were not that uncommon of a sight amongst herds, and it's not as though any of them are underage.”

Pete blinked, “Uh, herds? For one, and underage?”

Celestia nodded. “Yes, even by human laws none of us are too young, and by Equestrian laws we're all quite older than that. Equestrian law dictates that a mare may find a companion when she experiences her first heat cycle. Which typically happens around seven years of age. That being another point I wanted to exonerate you of.”

“SEVEN!?” Pete outright shouted, turning to face Celestia, and stepping back in shock.

“Yes,” Celestia sighed, “Our physiology is much different than humans, as are our mating rituals. Applejack's fury, I would speculate, comes from not wanting her sister to grow up. By next spring time she, and the rest of her friends, should have their first heat. Surely you can understand this mentality.”

Pete shook his head, “Sorry, I'm still hung up on seven being the AGE OF CONSENT, apparently!”

“Yes, sort of. Technically it's whenever a mare has her first heat cycle, usually around seven, sometimes earlier, sometimes later. Pete, humans don't have a heat cycle, and while Luna and myself have magic that can nullify its effects for ourselves, it's not so simple for the rest of pony kind. Personally, I wonder how some mares manage without a stallion by choice. To ask a filly to go through years without relief...”

Pete rubbed his face, “Okay, I guess I didn't really think of that, and for pretty good reason I'd say, but actual children aren't my interest. Okay? Fantasy is one thing, reality has always been another. I can draw a very distinct difference between watching an animation and thinking, 'hmm, that Twilight sure has a nice flank' and actually going up to the REAL Twilight and saying 'Nice ass!' I'm not stupid. Well, not that stupid anyway. And aside from that, very few of those images actually were Applebloom as a filly. To take fantasy to another level, most folks, when they drew the younger cast, imagined what they would look like when they were older.”

Celestia nodded, “I understand. All too well do I understand, however Applejack might not.”

“Yeah,” Pete sighed again, “I rather figured that. I don't expect her to forgive me for that stuff. I just want her to not hit me again.” As if to make his point stronger, the man rubbed his sore butt again.

Celestia responded with a light chuckle, but she saw the sincerity in his words. He didn't expect forgiveness, or acceptance, and he genuinely was afraid of being hit again. The princess sighed inwardly, they had made reverse progress. In their week of being around the human they had gotten him to open up, relax. Now, thanks to AJ, he was receding again. Retreating into his shell of self loathing. She wanted to push Pete on this point, find out what in his mind caused this reaction, but she didn't want to push him further away.

Looking away, Pete struggled for a topic change. “Oh, yeah. Herds?”

Celestia shook her head, clearing away her previous thoughts. “Yes. Our society tried at one point to do away with them, but it failed. Birthing has always been a rough ordeal on our kind. From what we've been able to gather of our own ancestors, and coupled with what Twilight has found of horses here, our birthing canals are smaller than our foals, which causes extreme pain during the birthing process. Most are afraid to use magic to alleviate the pain, in case it interferes with the foal, and at one point it got so bad that castrations became common.”

Pete cupped his crotch almost instinctively. “For fuck's sake!”

“Eventually, however, we realized something. The decreased birth rate caused a population decline, and with it we noticed that the ratio of stallions to mares was greatly skewed. On top of that, the number of stallions left with functional genitalia was even less.”

Pete relaxed, his eyes fixed on Celestia and filled with worry. “What happened then?”

“We established new laws. Men were made into valuable treasures, the loudest opposition to these changes were arrested and jailed while we balanced things back out. Of course that didn't change the initial problem, pregnancy was still painful, and almost guaranteed for every couple every spring. I put our best researchers on it, and after two years we found our answer. The herds we had previously worked just fine. A mare that is inseminated by more than one stallion has a reduced chance for pregnancy by up to 80%. We were somewhat baffled, but that was what we learned. So the old ways were brought back, and the population started to balance, but barely. The solution to the problem left us still with the issue of repopulation. Even today things haven't recovered. With reduced child births and already naturally low male births, the ration of stallions to mares is very lopsided.”

“So, I guess that it's more of a mechanical, sort of required thing, rather than a desired emotional state?”

Celestia shook her head. “Not really. We don't force herds, and there are a few that choose to be strictly one on one. Herding is encouraged though, often in a size of four, two males and two females. Though it's not uncommon for one stallion to have two mares to himself. The purpose is almost defeated in that case, however, since the idea is to prevent pregnancy by the stallions sperm killing each other.” Celestia paused a moment, then looked at Pete, “I suppose this is all more than a little strange for you.”

“Kinda of? Like … I mean, I haven't really done much dating here. Sure, I've gone out a few times but no ever clicked. No sparks, no chemistry, it was all just kinda … flat.” Pete looked off the edge of the roof to the street below, casually watching the barely visible dots that were people on the sidewalk below. “I can't really judge what I've never seen.”

Celestia stepped up beside him, also looking down. “So could you honestly judge this world?”

“Maybe not,” Pete half whispered.

The moment was then interrupted by the door being flung open and the sound of hooves on the roof. Pete and Celestia turned to see Applejack, panic evident on her face.

“Something's wrong,” the farm pony shouted.

“What's the matter?” Celestia asked, worry crossing her face as well.

“Ah dunno. Pinkie saw something on that computer and now she's just bawling.” AJ's eyes immediately looked at Pete, her expression hardening. Even Celestia looked at the human with a hint of suspicion.

“Hey, I deleted everything on there. I promise.” With just those simple words Pete rushed towards the door and entered the apartment.

Inside he immediately spotted Pinkie Pie, crying as Applejack had said, with her forelegs wrapped around Rainbow Dash on the couch. The pegasus had an expression of confusion, and slight suffocation. Pete made his way to the other side of the room, Celestia and AJ entering as he did so, and to Twilight. The purple unicorn was looking at the screen, her back to the human, but her absolute stillness said nearly everything.

From a distance Pete could see the Facebook color scheme and logo at the top of the page. Pinkie's bakery was getting out mostly via social media, under the condition that she never revealed she was a talking pony, obviously. Later, Pete would discover that she'd let her name slip in a post, which prompted what happened. Someone had left a picture comment, probably intending to be a joke. The first thing Pete noticed was the red, then the light blue, pink, and silvery gray. Then all he could see was red.

With a roar of sheer rage Pete half turned and punched the wall to his right, screaming, “Son of a bitch!” The outburst even woke up Luna, who stood next to Celestia, Applejack, and Twilight at the monitor. Someone had posted fan art of the story “Cupcakes,” the image depicting Pinkie cutting Rainbow Dash up, explaining the pink mare's death hug on the pegasus. The group displayed obvious dismay at the image, the princesses stepping away in disgust, and Applejack becoming once more extremely angry.

“This is exactly why I fucking hate humans!” Pete shouted, punctuating his sentence with another punch to the wall. “As soon as there's something happy, someone, somewhere, has to come along and fuck it up. Make everyone as miserable and sick as they are. We can't leave well enough alone, we have to stick our jacked up world views into every god damn thing we touch. This is the exact type of shit I wanted you all to avoid, and it comes flying right into your faces.”

“Like you're any different!” Applejack shouted, her own temper seeking release.

“Of course I'm not!” Pete roared back, turning around. “You already saw that! Ever since you all got here its been one of my problems after another messing you all up. I tried to keep it as simple as possible, keep our worlds as separate as I could, but that clearly failed. I'm just as bad as the rest of them! That's why I …”

Pete stopped, his fist slowly unclenched, and his head hung low. Applejack watched, her eyes like daggers, as the human slowly walked towards the couch. By the time he got there most of the room was watching as he slowly sunk down to his knees. Without looking, he reached forward and wrapped his arms around the sobbing pink mare, pulling himself close to her body.

“I'm sorry,” he whispered, “I'm so, so very sorry. You didn't deserve to see that. None of you deserved to see any of this.”

“I would never hurt Dashie!” Pinkie sobbed, her face still buried in Rainbow's shoulder.

“I know,” Pete said, his tone still soft. “I know that you'd never hurt anyone intentionally. None of you would.”

“It's just stupid,” Twilight said, her eyes still on the screen.

“Exactly,” Pete expanded, “It's just some dumb thing that an idiot thought up because he thought it was cool. People do dumb stuff because of 'cool.'”

“Yeah, like Gilda. I mean, whatever this picture is it's probably pretty bad, but it's like how Gilda was so mean when she came by. She thought it was cool, but it's not. She was just acting stupid,” Rainbow Dash chimed in, putting a wing over her friend.

Feeling the feathers touch his hand, Pete pulled away from his hug and stood up. He looked down at the pair of mares, Pinkie's sobbing starting to quiet. The touching scene in front of him was quickly swept away, however, as he remembered the image was still around. His face returning to anger he turned towards the computer.

“What a played out joke,” Twilight said, Pete noticing that her tone was very neutral.

“Uh, Twilight? What are you saying?” Pete asked, cocking his head to the side.

Twilight jumped slightly and turned. “I'm reading these comments,” she replied, “I mean, there's a couple of people saying stupid stuff, but mostly it's people saying the image is dumb, or that the 'joke' is 'lame' and old. I mean, there's folks here that are almost as upset as you. Some of them are military and threatening to kill the guy that posted this!”

Pete's rage fell immediately into unhindered laughter. “Those aren't real! Trust me, those are not real. Those are people that think it's cool to copy, word for word, some threat that someone wrote. Let me guess, there's several guys claiming to be snipers with a dozen black ops missions under their belt, right?”

Twilight blinked, and blushed, “Uh, yeah...”

Chuckling lightly at how stupid that copy paste was after all these years, Pete walked over to the computer to see these comments for himself. There were, as Twilight said, several people posting absolute stupidity. Not even constructive or amusing stupidity, just lost of cussing and threats. On the other side though, there were many people insulting the image, some of them even going into actual details about how the art was, posing, shading, and legitimately ripping it apart. Others were seemingly exasperated with how such a “schlocky story” had survived well past the end of the show. Pete, the princesses, Twilight, and Applejack stood around and watched as slowly comments were deleted due to people flagging them for spam, or reporting them as abuse, along with the eventual removal of the image entirely. This was followed by the start of a new comment chain, wherein the people from the now removed comments talked about their favorite parts of the show.

“People may spread around their 'messed up world views,'” Celestia said, her words spoken to the air but clearly directed at Pete, “But when the darkness becomes too much they will always bring in the light. Ponies are much the same way.”

Pete continued to stand and stare at the computer screen, reading each comment filled with happy memories. What Celestia had just said slowly sunk into his mind, and the man braced himself internally. He knew that, but he could never hold onto that glimmer, and he knew that too.

“These last few days have been … stressful, to say the least,” Pete said loudly after a few minutes. “I think we need something to unwind.”

“Like what?” Applejack said, half wary and half wanting.

Pete smirked at the mare. “A party.”

Suddenly Pinkie was there, bright eyed and bouncing. “REALLY?! REALLY REALLY?!”

“Yeah. Why not?” Pete shrugged.

“Oh BOY!” Pinkie shouted, bouncing around harder now. “I'll have to get ready! We're gonna need lots of party food! OOH! And drinks!” She turned back to Pete, then hopped up to his eye level, holding herself there by digging her back legs into his sides and placing her forelegs on his shoulders. “We need booze,” she said almost deadpan.

Pete blinked for a moment then gave an awkward shrug. “O-okay, I guess. I don't drink myself though so you might have to be a little more specific than that...”

Within moments Pinkie rattled off a dozen names, followed by a general description of how they tasted, once Pete reminded her that the names probably wouldn't be the same, so he'd have something better to work off of. This was then followed by Pinkie pronking away as a list was levitated into Pete's face. He took the list, filled with everything Pinkie had just spouted off and gave Twilight, the obvious writer of the list, a grateful smile.

Pete might not have been big on booze, but he managed to track down at least some equivalent of what Pinkie wanted, and in large amounts that didn't break his wallet again. As he walked back into the apartment, music blaring, ponies dancing, and spirits somewhat lifted, he hoped that this would be the last time some part of his world interfered with the ponies'. And maybe, just a bit, he hoped that things would lighten up between the two species again.

The After Party

It was quiet up on the roof this late at night. The stars were strangely visible, and the traffic below seemed even more distant. Pete sat on the block that was his own apartment with Luna next to him, the princess calmly looking at the sky as well. After a minute Pete looked over and chuckled.

“Usually this is Celestia and I in the morning,” he laughed.

Luna let out a small giggle of her own and looked at the human. “I am well aware. … There was something I wanted to talk to you about, Pete.”

Pete shrugged, “Go for it.”

“I was wondering,” Luna said looking solemnly at Pete, “What makes you hate humans so much?”

Pete gave a sour laugh. “What isn't to hate? … Look, I've had people ask me that before, parents, therapists a couple of times, and here's what I tell them all. You try growing up with people picking on you. 'Loser' or 'fat ass,' making fun of anything I'm doing. Mocking me, dumping their half eaten food on my tray going, 'eat up piggy.' Then you follow that with every friend after using you, dumping you as soon as someone else comes by. Everyone talking behind your back, it drives you insane, Luna.”

“Why?” the Princess of Night asked, worry in her eyes.

“Because people suck.”

“No,” she shook her head, “Why would they call you a … 'fat ass' or 'pig?' You hardly seem overweight, or like a donkey.”

Pete chuckled derisively, “Because I used to be fat. Very fat. And there's something people don't see about that. Yeah, I was overweight, but what I didn't know, and what those other people didn't know, is what that did to me. Being overweight makes the rest of your body start to mess up, and not just as long as you're fat.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, orange, cylindrical bottle.

“What is that?”

Pete looked at Luna sadly. “Heart pills. I'm only 25, and I have heart problems because of being grossly overweight for my entire childhood into my early adulthood.” Pete gripped the pill bottled hard, fighting back tears. “I didn't know why I ate so much, I still don't know why I did, I knew it was unhealthy but it didn't matter. Days and days of abuse and I stopped caring. Dying would have been fine, but I didn't know how irreversible it would be. A lot of teens hate themselves, hate everyone, depression is rampant, but you can get better like I did. Then you find out that being fat made your heart pump too hard, cut years off your life, left you at risk for more complications down the line, and then you start to hate those people. The ones that made fun of you for being fat, because by doing that they were essentially cheering on your death.”

“Pete,” Luna said, her voice trying to be comforting.

“I could take all that. I could stand the verbal abuse, but then the fighting started. Escalated in high school, didn't stop till college. Even then it was difficult. D'you know how hard it is to lose weight, work out, when everyone around you is pointing and laughing? It's no wonder so many people are fat with that attitude being all over.”

Luna was still caught on his previous statement. “Fighting? They became physically violent?”

“Yeah. More than once. Pretty often actually, at least once a week. After a while I got good at fighting. Not fantastic mind you, but I could hold my own in a scrap. Learned how to use my weight to my advantage. Then I found out it was literally killing me. Some might say I got lucky, found out before it killed me, lost the weight, but … I still have a weak heart.” Pete slowly sunk to the ground, unable to hold himself up any longer. “Even now I'm at risk for a heart attack, all these years later. Too much stress and just, boom. There I go. There's no avoiding it either. Old age will only make it worse, my lifespan is completely down in the toilet.”

Suddenly, Luna laughed bitterly. “This is what I would want, isn't it? To hear that he's broken, that I could do something.” The blue alicorn turned and looked at the cityscape. “That my people could still need me...”

“Luna, what the hell are you talking about? You think I'm kidding right now?”

“It's a nice fantasy,” she said quietly, obviously to herself.

Pete struggled to his feet and positioned himself in front of her, anger evident on his face. “Dammit, Luna, look at me!”

Luna's face changed to one of amusement, then slowly into horror. “You-you're not...”

“Not what?” Pete asked, utterly bewildered at the last several moments of the conversation. Here he was, pouring his soul out, and she was laughing? His anger then faded into sadness. Of course she was, they'd all said since day one that ponies were very much like people. Of course they'd all let him down eventually.

Consciousness returned to Pete in small waves. He stirred slowly in the dark, until he finally realized that he was in the dark. Groaning lightly and grasping at any thought that passed him, hoping for a thread of consciousness to guide him back to his mind. He promptly wished that he hadn't as the throbbing of his head made him wish he'd died. Though the sensation was unfamiliar through experience, he'd dealt with enough of them to know what it was. He was hung over. He felt the sheets and blanket on his body, the sensation telling him he was naked, and in his bed. The party the night before slowly filtered back into his mind and he groaned in annoyance. Obviously someone had spiked his drink, or he'd picked up the wrong cup, and that led to his current pain. Sending a mental swear to the sunlight that would surely be out his door, Pete pulled his soft, warm pillow closer to his face and started to nod off again.

That was, until he recognized those two words did not fit his pillows. Pete's pillows were flat as books and typically lukewarm at best. Taking a deep breath he caught a strange scent of flowers, though he could not identify what kind he was positive it was a floral scent. Steadying himself for pain, Pete opened his eyes, immediately cursing his lack of glasses, and tried to take note of what he was holding. Of course, as he expected, it wasn't a 'what' but rather a 'who.' The who was a unicorn, as evident by the lack of wings and the small protrusion atop their head. He gave a small sight of relief at this, slowly remembering Celestia making a few very obvious, if not overtly playful, passes at him the night before.

A million worries played through his mind, the least of them not being Applejack's reaction to this event. After a moment of panic, and headache, those worries faded. The deed was done, nothing more could be said, and something within Pete grew bright. He had made love to one of the mane six. He couldn't recall the event at all, but considering his position and nudity that was obviously what had happened. For Pete, it was a dream come true, and he opted to revel in it for a while. He pulled the mare closer to himself and buried his face into her chest, where the fur was thickest. She responded with a light giggle, the sound identifying her as Twilight, which sent another small surge of victory through Pete as she wrapped her hooves around his neck.

At this point Pete made two observations. The first being that pony hooves were warm. Not body temperature, but not cold either. They were also somewhat soft, though still tough enough to shatter bones. The second being in relation to his feeling of triumph, that he'd slept with Twilight Sparkle, leader of the Elements of Harmony, and the closest you get to the throne without the public notoriety. Though that didn't mean anything in his world, it was still a nice feeling. He laid there snuggling Twilight, throughly enjoying how soft her fur was and how nice she smelled, before the mare started to stir.

“Agh,” she groaned, a hoof leaving Pete's back and reaching up to rub her face. “Where am I?”

“Careful,” Pete whispered in response, Twilight physically tightening up with fear, “Relax, we're in my room. How's your head?”

“It's pounding.”

Pete chuckled, “Mine too. I'd guess everyone else's is as well.” Pete paused for a moment as Twilight stretched out, evidently got more comfortable, and then slowly realized where she was. “So, uh, do you remember how we got here?”

“Not really,” she replied slowly, thinking her way through the night before. “What happened?”

“I have no idea,” Pete said earnestly, “But, um … I'm kinda … naked.”

There was a long pause, only broken sometime later, though Pete had no idea how long, by Twilight letting out a lack luster, “oh.” Pete watched, as best he could thanks to the darkness and lack of eye wear, as Twilight tilted her head upwards and creeped a hoof down. Confirming for herself that the human was naked, by finding his own horn no less, she suddenly scrambled out of the bed and ran for the door. There was a brief flash of sunlight as the door few open, and then darkness as it shut.

Pete rolled over to where she'd been laying. The warmth of summer had started to fade in the early August week, and his naked form craved the body heat she had left. He laid there for several minutes, smiling wide and hoping some more sleep would cure his hangover. At least until reality set in. The worries from before came back, but this time amped up to ten. Twilight had ran out very fast, and she was close to Celestia. As close as you could get without being headlining news. If Twilight felt violated, and she was crying to Celestia right now...

A vivid image of Celestia tearing Pete's entrails out with her magic, then sending his husk to the surface of the sun got the man out of bed quickly. He switched on the lamp in his room, finding his glasses tossed haphazardly on the bedside table, and put them on. He then proceeded to dress, slipping into his usual all black attire, and almost ran out into the main room. He found the mares gathered around, most of them still disheveled from the night before. Except for Twilight, who was clearly still slightly damp from a shower, and nursing a mug of coffee. Pete silently stepped into the semicircle that had formed around the couch, which included the two alicorn rulers, and sat on the poorly upholstered cushions.

Across from him sat Twilight and Celestia, arguably the least disheveled of the group. Twilight was only missing some brushing from her shower, with her fur still matted in places. Celestia simply looked tired, as did the rest of the group. Luna, to his left, was only slightly worse than Celestia, probably thanks to their ethereal manes not being capable of tangling. The Princess of Night did however seem much more tired, with bags visible under her eyes. Next to her were Fluttershy and Rarity. The white unicorn looked the second best of the non alicorn group, brush in her magical grip and slowly going through her mane and having obviously already done her tail. Fluttershy would be third, with only her mane looking slightly messy, which was an accomplishment for how long it was. Applejack and Pinkie Pie were to the right of the couch, and Pinkie hardly looked wrong at all. Like Fluttershy, Pinkie's mane was only slightly messy, and neither mare had significant bags under their eyes. If Pete had to guess, they were asleep fairly early. Applejack on the other hand was quite the mess. Her mane and tail were undone and looked like she'd slept in a field. Her posture perfectly reflected the state of heavy drinking that had taken place, somewhere between laying down and a slump. Rainbow Dash was up on the couch with Pete, her mane only out of place if one were intimately familiar with her usual unbrushed look. However, she had possibly the biggest bags under her eyes, and was letting out a near continuous yawn, teetering on the brink of passing back out. The human slowly rubbed his face and forehead, most of the collective around him understanding his pain.

“I got drunk last night,” he said flatly.

“We all did,” Applejack retorted in her usually surly tone.

“No,” Pete shook his head, “I don't drink. I do not drink, at all. Someone spiked my drink.”

“If you're insinuatin' somethin' then you better-” Applejack's heated words were cut off by an intense giggling next to her.

“The only reason you didn't like drinking before was because you never had one of my drinks!” Pinkie shouted and giggled, hangovers apparently not affecting her.

Pete leveled a flat gaze at the party pony. “Care to explain?”

The night before, two hours after party start

Pinkie was surprised at how well the party was going. She knew how to throw a party, sure, but with the events of the last few days combined even she was dubious that the others would lighten up. That changed though when the alcohol started to pass through her hooves, into cups, and finally into mouths. The only one not drinking was Pete. Their host was standing almost awkwardly in the corner in the kitchen, simply watching.

Pinkie had many thoughts about the young man. Largely based around his personality. It seemed, to her, that he was a genuinely happy guy inside, but he kept pulling himself into pessimism for some reason she didn't know. He always had this strange air of self restraint on, but the few times it had broke she'd almost clapped with joy. She blamed his mood partially on his chosen attire, constant black had to drive somepony's mood down. Even his drink, some doctor soda, was a black brown color.

However, that color made it perfect for her idea! Pinkie giggled slightly and trotted over to the drink table, formerly the kitchen table, and mixed together a drink using Pete's soda. She sat the drink on the table and slipped closer to Pete. His attention was on the other side of the room, on the princesses and Rarity in the corner near the door to the roof.

“Perfect,” the pink pony whispered to herself, edging closer to her prey.

When she was just a foot away, Pinkie bounced straight up and shouted, “Hi,” causing Pete to jump, and drop his soda. The human groaned at his soon to be sticky clothes, and shot Pinkie a look of irritation.

“What the hell?” Pete asked calmly.

Pinkie giggled, “I didn't think you'd jump THAT much!”

Pete opened his mouth to respond, but quickly closed it. With a light sigh he stepped off to his room for a change of shirt. When he returned in his clean clothing, a light blue shirt rather than his typical black, Pinkie handed him her preprepared drink, as an apology.

“You don't have to apologize, Pinkie,” Pete said, taking the drink in hand. “I'm just kind of... I dunno, off tonight.”

“How so?” the bubbly mare asked.

“Lotta things on my mind. About me, and … well, everything really. It's all kinda leaving a bad taste in my mouth.” Pete took a gulp on the laced soda and grimaced. “That's not helping much. … Could it be going flat already?”

“Maybe,” Pinkie replied seriously, “That bottle was almost empty.”

“Ick, best power through this then. Don't want to open the other bottle before finishing this one.”

Present

“And I made you drinks for the rest of the night.”

The group was staring at Pinkie in shock. Obviously it wasn't acceptable behavior in either world to spike someone's drink. Pete, however, was slightly shaking. Luna looked over at the man and tilted her head.

“Is something amiss? I mean, other than what we have just learned.”

“It … no … okay,” Pete sighed, “Yeah, there is. … I have something I need to tell you all.”

“And what's that?” Applejack asked, irritation evident in her look.

“I … have somewhat of a heart condition.” Immediately after finishing his sentence, Pete visibly deflated.

By contrast, the rest of the room looked on in shock.

“What does thou mean?” Luna half shouted.

“I just … I have a weak heart, and so things like alcohol can seriously damage me. I mean, I'm already damaged, but it doesn't help. I don't remember what happened last night, so who knows what kind of insanity I got into, or if it mixed well with my pills, or any number of things. I could have had a heart attack last night and not have known until it was too late.”

Celestia gave a short look around the room, “None of us would have known.”

“These are the kinds of things you tell folks, Pete!” Rainbow Dash shouted, a look not unlike shock in her eyes, the emotion powering through her tiredness.

Even Applejack looked apologetic, biting her lower lip and averting her eyes. The other ponies looked concerned, though Luna was more stunned, but Pinkie Pie was the one that flew off the handle. The pink mare leapt up into Pete's lap and hugged him tightly, bawling much like she had the day before around Rainbow's neck. The human merely sighed and gave her a light hug back.

“I'm sorry,” he said to the group, “You're right, Rainbow, I should have said something. This is just as much my fault. If I had been up front about why I don't drink this never would have happened.” Pete glanced at Twilight some what sadly, “None of it.”

Rainbow slowly wrapped a wing around Pete, which the human gently touched the edge of with his opposite hand. The trio sat like that for a moment, before Pete realized that Pinkie had gone quiet. Looking down, he found the mare had the side of her head pressed against his chest.

“Uh... what are you doing, Pinkie?” he asked, a slight blush on his face.

“I'm listening to your heart,” she replied quietly, “It doesn't sound weak...”

Pete chuckled and ran a hand over the mare's mane. “No, and that's what the doctors tell me too. But what's weak about it is that it could give out any time. If I'd gotten too active last night, with the booze making it beat all funny, something bad could have happened.”

Applejack looked around for a moment, then up at Pete. “Ya mean, like maybe a fight?”

Mid Party

Applejack had just trounced Rainbow Dash in a small bout of friendly wrestling, the cyan mare now sleeping off her loss on the couch, and was eying Pete sitting in the kitchen. He was talking to Rarity, the white unicorn seeming a little worried from where AJ stood. The farm pony was thinking about their human host for several reasons. Firstly, she still wasn't over what she'd seen, even drunk she remembered that. Secondly, she was thinking of a way to help let off that steam. Pete and Rainbow had wrestled before, so maybe she could convince Pete to have a round with her.

“Hey, Pete!” Applejack called over the loud music in the apartment, catching the man's attention. She gave a smirk and a 'bring it on' motion with her hoof, which caused Pete to raise a brow. Even half drunk the man couldn't believe Applejack had called him by name. He was sure he knew what she wanted, he'd seen the match earlier, but he couldn't fathom why.

With a casual shrug, Pete rose from his chair and stepped across to the center of the room where Applejack stood. The tan pony popped her neck and smiled wide, confident that she could take the creature on despite his size. Pete responded with a sigh, and raised his hands slightly, leaving them lightly cupped for quick grappling. Twilight and Pinkie took notice of the pair and started clapping their hooves, Twilight from drunken joy, and Pinkie because she thought the two were starting to get along.

The fight started off with AJ gaining the upper hand, or rather hoof. Because she lacked the ability to fly that RD had, and being as her opponent was twice her size, she opted to start by launching herself at Pete's face. Using her powerful bucking legs, the farm pony crouched slightly and then shot forward, knocking Pete off his feet and onto his back. Applejack expected shock, what she got was the grin of a madman. Pete was a grapple expert, and starting off with her right in his grip was perfect. He grabbed hold of her lower forehooves and promptly flipped sideways, putting the mare on her back.

AJ blinked, stunned, for a second. She hadn't counted on him being so comfortable touching her, and slowly their position sunk into her mind. The farm pony cocked her hind legs and let loose a hard double kick to Pete's lower stomach. The human coughed hard as the blow landed and the pain registered. Realizing his mistake, Pete quickly rolled AJ onto her belly, at which point she started to fight back with renewed vigor. She was in a position of power and weakness. Pete was heavy, not heavy enough to bring her down with just his weight but his hands were pulling at her forehooves in an attempt to pin her, but her ability to buck was perfect in this position.

Unfortunately, that was where her plan failed. As her back legs coiled, putting more stress on her forelegs, Pete pushed with everything he had. Applejack's front legs went out, her face came down, and Pete right on top. He waited a few seconds while the mare under him struggled, finding no avenue of escape and finally surrendering, before standing up. He gave a small smile, which AJ scoffed at, and went back to his chair near the table.

Present

Pete inhaled deeply at the conclusion of the story. That was dangerous. The reactions around the group ranged from shocked to nearly appalled. However, a different question was raised.

“What were we talking about, Rarity?” Pete asked, shifting his focus to the fashionista.

Rarity cleared her throat, “Princess Celestia had spoken to you earlier, and I was curious what she said.”

Pete looked at the princess, “And what did WE talk about?”

“I made a few … passes at you,” Celestia chuckled.

“Passes? Like, actual ones, or just fake ones? I thought they were fake.” Pete blinked.

“That's what you said,” Rarity replied, “Well, you said that she 'hit on you,' specifically.”

The human let out a disbelieving laugh, “I had the princess herself on me? Nice.”

The group half groaned, Applejack specifically shooting more dagger eyes at Pete, and even Twilight seemed to struggle for words. Pete responded by laughing and waving it all off.

“Oh, c'mon. Like she would actually have been interested in bland ass me. Please, a bum off the street would have a better chance than me.”

“Okay, that's too far!” Rainbow interjected. “Sure, you don't seem to really stand out, and from what we've heard you might not be the only human that would have put us up, but how many would have gone out of their way like that?”

“Like what?”

“Well,” Rarity said, biting her lip and looking away, “You did spend quite a bit on my own health care products.”

Rainbow Dash scoffed, “Mane curlers and make up are NOT health care, but that for sure. Plus, you've been pretty out of your way to make us feel more at home. I mean, massages, a party, lining up movies and sitting through them with us.”

“Unlimited access to an unending stream of perpetually updating information about any subject,” Twilight said, obviously referring to the internet, with a slightly vacant expression and possibly drool starting to form at the corner of her mouth.

Fluttershy blushed and said, “Um, you completely changed your eating habits since we, uh, shown up.”

Pinkie Pie nodded against Pete's chest, “Yeah! Just a week or two in and you didn't even mention that you weren't eating meat! Plus, there was all that baking stuff for me.”

“Now hold on,” Applejack interjected, “That meat eating thing is still gross, and that baking stuff was more for him than you! You're just using it so we aren't running him into the ground.”

The group turned to Applejack, several obviously with retorts on their tongues, but Pete spoke first.

“What is your deal? You've been this way since day one, and it hasn't stopped. It's like everything I do digs me deeper. I already told you that I'm not the best person ever, but that isn't enough for you. So tell me, just what is?”

Applejack snorted, “How about getting us home?”

“Oh, yeah, sure. One magical portal to Equestria coming RIGHT UP,” Pete retorted with an eye roll.

“I bet you don't even like apples!” AJ shouted back, obviously going for what would make the top of her shit list, but Pete just grined.

“Contrary to that, I actually love apples.”

“Well, we saw that particular scene.”

Pete gritted his teeth, ready to spit more acid, but a whimper from the pink pony against his chest stopped him.

“I heard it,” she whispered.

The human blinked and then took a sudden breath. He fell back against the couch, his eyes slightly unfocusing as his breath went shallow. Applejack stayed on target, her face hard even as the mares around her clamored, until it finally became obvious even to her that Pete wasn't faking.

“Forgot pills,” Pete spluttered, pressing a hand to his heart.

“Well where are they?!” Rainbow shouted, already airborne.

“Bathroom, orange bottle, cabinet.”

The cyan pegasus sped off and back in the same blur, struggling with the lid when she was back. Twilight stepped in, her horn lighting up and taking the bottle from the magicless pegasus. She quickly read the dosage, opened the bottle, and floated the pills to Pete. He didn't even bother using his hands, he simply leaned forward and took the pills into his mouth out of the air, swallowing them dry and resuming his leaned back position. The group remained on alert until their host's breathing returned to normal.

“Can't forget those,” Pete muttered angrily when he recovered.

Celestia looked to Pinkie, who had returned to holding the human tightly with her fore legs. “What exactly did you hear?”

“It was like it skipped a beat,” she said quietly.

The alicorn sisters looked at each other. “Arrhythmia,” they said at the same time.

“Pete,” Luna said slowly, “That is … an incredibly dangerous condition.”

“Had a heart attack before I graduated college,” he replied almost absently, his head laying against the back of the couch, looking at the ceiling with his eyes closed. “Had it ever since. Had to be careful when I worked out to loose weight, and even now it's there. Nothing I can do about it.”

The sisters shared another look, before Celestia excused them with a short, “Luna and I need to talk privately.” With the two out on the rooftop the mares left suddenly looked around the apartment.

“Place is … kinda messed up,” Rainbow said slowly.

“Well girls,” Applejack said, standing up, “We had the fun, we gotta help with the mess.”

Twilight stood up and walked over to the shelves of movies and games, “I'll start here.”

“I'll go to the kitchen,” Fluttershy half whispered.

“I'll help, dear,” Rarity chimed in and moved to follow her.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Pete said, raising his hands, “We aren't done yet. I … We still need to know what happened last night.”

Rainbow sighed, “Okay, I know what happened. I guess after AJ and I had our little match I slept off some of the booze. At least enough to be sober later...”

Pete's apartment, 1 AM

Rainbow Dash had woken up to a very shocking sight. Pete was wearing a shirt that was almost the exact same shade as her coat. She was certain he didn't know, but it was very common for stallions to wear an accessory or piece of clothing that matched the color of the mare they wanted to woo. It wasn't uncommon for mares to go for other mares, or stallions for stallions, but the point was, he was wearing her color. In Equestria it could be several mares, but Rainbow was the only one with that color here.

A quick look around the room shown that she was one of the few awake, along with Pete, Twilight, and a very drunk Applejack. She carefully moved off to the bathroom, a stress building in her stomach. With the door closed, she ran cold water over her face and looked herself in the mirror. She'd never been much for beautification, but the feeling in her gut pushed that away. She ran her hooves across her mane a few times, her mind going over the last two weeks. Since arriving she'd spent quite a bit of time with Pete, they all had, but Rainbow specifically. He watched movies with her, he suggested new ones, and they seemed to have similar tastes. For having so many eggheaded tendencies he liked things simple and impressive. Not long drawn out documentaries, not movies with lots of talking, but movies with bad villains, awesome heroes, and epic fights.

They'd talked a bit and she couldn't help herself. Now he was wearing a shirt with her coat color, half drunk, and she knew, oh did she know, that he was interested. That porn on his computer had shown her that, and Rainbow would be lying if she said she wasn't just a little curious about what he had had on her. She wasn't nearly as prudish as the others. Tonight was the night, she could make her move. She would make her move.

Grinning to herself, Rainbow opened the door and exited the bathroom. Applejack had passed out in the corner, her hat on top of her face, and Twilight and Pete were on the couch. Together. Lips locked against each other, Pete's hands taking every single opportunity to feel the unicorn's fur. Rainbow stared for a moment before the couple broke their kiss, Pete picked Twilight up and carried her into his room, leaving Rainbow Dash alone. A pack of emotions roiled inside her, but she moved to the kitchen. She knew what to do. The pegasus pulled open the only bottle of alcohol left and downed it. It didn't bother her that Pete was making out with her friend, it bothered her that she could feel what she felt.

Rainbow Dash was angry, not at Pete, but at Twilight. She didn't know why, she couldn't justify it, but she was mad, and jealous. Celestia, was she jealous, and it hurt her. She wanted to kick open the door and boot Twilight out, take her place, feel those hands on her flank. Rainbow finished the bottle at that thought, hurting Twilight like that. That wasn't loyalty, that wasn't her.

Present

“So you two were making out when I finished using the bathroom. I couldn't take THAT sight, so I went into the kitchen and finished off the alcohol. When I came back you were both in his room,” Rainbow said, shrugging.

“That... pretty much seals it,” Pete said.

Twilight paused for a minute before shaking her head. “We should get this place back together.”

Pete simply nodded, but found himself suddenly held down by two mares, Rainbow and Pinkie, who shook their heads at his attempt to get up. He opened his mouth to say something, but decided against it, instead laying back against the couch.

Rainbow sighed, “I'm gonna have to keep an eye on you from now on, sick guy.”

“I can keep a check on it myself.”

“Like this morning?”

“That was...”

Pete never finished that sentence. At that moment the princesses returned and took a seat on the floor close to Pete's position on the couch. Their expressions were very serious and flat. Luna looked at Celestia one last time, the white alicorn nodding, and then to Pete.

“Pete,” she started slowly, “Your heart condition … we could fix it. Or rather, Equestrian doctors could.”

Once more the room became charged with emotions.

“What are you saying here, Luna?” Pete asked, sitting forward slightly.

“I … rather we, my sister and I, are suggesting that when we solve this interdimensional conundrum we take you back with us.”

“A-are you kidding?”

“Yeah,” Applejack shouted, “Please tell me you're jokin'!”

“We're not,” Celestia replied flatly, “Pete blames many of his problems on this world and the inhabitants, so we offer a multitude of help. Luna and I have long wondered if our ancestor's choice in banishing the humans was made in haste, and our guess is that it was. Whatever Pete may think of them, humans have clearly done well. In lieu of magic they have developed far in the fields of science and technology, while those can not match magical potential they are very good stand ins.”

“What my sister is trying to say,” Luna cut in, “Is that we want to bring humans back to their original home, back to our world, and we want Pete to be the first.”

“Why me?”

“Yeah, why him?” Applejack asked at almost the same time.

Celestia sighed, “Mostly because of all the help he's given us here. He has paid for our food, amenities, and given us access to many things I feel most would consider intrusive, such as his computer which my student has free access to, and has been a source of grief the past several days. Quite simply, he could have asked us to stay on a very short leash and had us work out our issues as frequently as possible, instead he's been accepting of our inability to solve the problem and given us nearly free reign. He has been courteous, kind, understanding, and very patient with us. I feel that a simple relocation would not be too much of a repayment for such actions.”

Applejack grumbled and walked off, leaving the rest of them to think on this offer. Of course the first thought on everyone's mind was the medical attention. Pete had spent the last several years of his life afraid that any minute could be his last, but this offer could change that. He could get those years back. It was more than tempting.

“Of course the choice is up to you,” Celestia said, noticing Pete's contemplative look.

“I … yeah, I just need to think on it for a bit,” he said, patting Pinkie's head and setting her aside before standing up and heading for the roof.

He sat on the upper roof for about a half hour before Twilight appeared, literally. There was a flash a few feet away from him and there she was. The unicorn looked around for a moment and then trotted over and sat next to the human. Several minutes went by before the silence broke, surprisingly by Twilight.

“Well, I hope it was good for you,” she said, obviously trying to play their happening last night off.

“Wish I could remember,” Pete said with a half smile, “It was my first time after all.”

Twilight's eyes went wide and she looked at him, “Your first time? You've never...”

“Nupe. Not once. Well, I've gotten close, but I'm kind of a high standards guy. I don't just want sex, I want sex with the right person. ...or pony, I guess.”

Celestia's student was quiet for another moment. “My first time,” she finally said, “Was back during my school days. He was a nice stallion and … I think I gave in because he wore that dumb sweater for almost a month.”

“Sweater?” Pete laughed.

“Yes. It's common during courtship for the interested party to wear something bearing the color of the pony they want. He wore the dumbest purple sweater, during summer, for almost a month. Of course the heat cycle probably had a hoof in it by that point, but I also felt sorry for him. We were together just over a month and then … it kinda fell apart I guess. I wanted books and he wanted parties.”

“I know that feeling. Basically me during most of college. I'd rather hang out in the library or my dorm room, everyone else would rather get drunk and party.”

Twilight was about to respond, but a sharp beeping rang out from Pete. The man blinked and pulled out his cell phone. Pressing his finger to his lips he hit the receive button and placed the phone to his ear.

“Yellow?”

“You dick,” Clarissa, Pete's sister and only sibling, said in an irritated tone. “A half dozen texts last night about your creepy porn folders again and no apology this morning?”

“Creepy porn folder?” Pete asked, his voice half trembling.

“Yeah. You sent be a whole bunch of crap about Twilight Sparkle and how you going to do her, right before you got tired and put your dick away.”

Pete went slack jawed. “I what?”

His sister sighed, “You said that she 'fell asleep' and that you were going to just go ahead and go to bed. Guessing your computer died before you could finish.”

In a heartbeat Pete was scrolling through his texts, and sure enough there was the evidence.

“You're right,” he said to Clarissa, “I was having a bad night, actually tried drinking, it did not work out well at all, and I'm sorry.”

There was a moment of silence from the other end followed quickly by a phone being hung up. Pete then looked at Twilight and smiled.

“Did you notice anything when you showered this morning?”

“Um, like what?”

“Like … semen.”

Twilight blushed for a moment before hitting realization. “No.”

“Yeah,” Pete said quickly, “And I don't remember any condoms in my room. I don't think I even have any. And the bed wasn't sticky or wet.” Before Twilight could say anything Pete pushed his message list up to Twilight's face. The last two messages read, “i'm totaly n bed wif Twilght!” and “O, shit. shes aslep now... thas okay shell be hre 2marrow.”

The two looked at each other for a moment, worry washing off both of them, but a sense of failure surging into Pete. He had, in fact, done nothing. On one hand, he'd done nothing! Everything was fine, no need for more weird relationship drama. On the other, he'd done nothing, he was still a virgin, he hadn't slept with the leader of the Elements of Harmony, he was just … Pete.

Of course the news went over better with the mares in the apartment, Twilight laughing it off and saying she should have noticed from the “lack of evidence.” Mostly Pete stayed out of it, once more leaning against a corner of the apartment while the mane six had their moment of friendship. This was noticed by a certain alicorn, however, who decided to crash his one man party.

“Made your decision, Pete?” Celestia asked almost casually.

“Not yet,” he responded, shaking his head, “One thing before another. Maybe once we've got a sure fire way of getting you all home I'll make a choice. Right now though, this is enough.”

Celestia nodded briefly, “I supposed that is a good enough answer for now, but don't forget about it.”

Pete chuckled, as if he could forget such an offer, and stepped off towards the bathroom on the other side of the apartment, Celestia heading for the doors to the roof near where they spoke. As he passed by a shelf of cases stacked on their backs, he noticed something. A slip of paper. Carefully pulling it out to examine it, Pete frowned. It was a ticket, a police ticket. A fine for disturbing the peace. It suddenly occurred to Pete that no one shut the music off, the police would have knocked, maybe battered their way inside if he didn't open the door. But he didn't. The citation was issued for three in the morning, but his last text was at two.

“Where was Celestia?” a voice in the back of his mind pondered.

She was at the party, Pete thought back, until he realized that she was only mentioned once. A drunk, passed out alicorn would be noticed, but no one mentioned her beyond Rarity. Where had Celestia been?

Pete changed course, sticking the ticket back where it was, and went for the roof again. He climbed to the upper roof only to find it vacant. Celestia was gone, and it dawned on Pete that this wasn't the first time.

“Celestia,” Pete half growled, “What are you doing?”

The Princess is a Part Timer

“Thank you, come again!” the woman with the bubble gum pink hair shouted after the pair of teenagers exiting the gas station. She sighed as the glass and metal door swung close behind them, and shifted her shirt around. Taking on the guise of a human, Celestia had gotten a job as a cashier at a gas station far enough away from Pete's apartment that the odds the human would find her were slim. Going by her short hand, Tia, getting the job had been the easy part, dealing with customers was not.

Within her first week on the job, she realized just what made Pete so upset with the planet. All it took was one newscast to make one question the state of the world. Not because of the disastrous reports of murder and global catastrophe, but simply because of how much fluff there was. Each piece of news got less than a minute of air time, a minute and a half if it was the talk of the evening, and the level of bias in them was obvious even to an outsider. After that first week Celestia could almost predict the news word for word, and they wouldn't even cover a fourth of the whole story.

Aside from that, the attitude of the average person was disinterest at best, and callous more often than not. Too many times during her short working time has Celestia nearly leveled the business because some impatient man berated her over situations far beyond her control. Of course there were those that understood, but more often than not if someone had to wait more than a minute you'd think the world was ending for them. Humans were demanding, and Celestia had a suspicion that if the roles were reversed they would complain about the ones complaining.

And all of this of course ignored the sickening demands of the job itself. By cashier, she apparently also signed up as janitor and stocker. Neither of which would bother her too much, except no one seemed to have any sense of maturity. Someone always felt the need to silently make a mess in the back of the aisles, which was strange considering there were only two short racks of goods. These spills were never mentioned by the customer that would create them, but she would certainly hear about them under the breaths of the following ones. Then there was the bathroom. Quite simply, it was disgusting. It seemed to Celestia that humans used the bathroom in the gas station when they simply wanted to make a sickening mess and not clean it up themselves. Thankfully, magic was not outside of her reach as a human.

Overall, she surmised that humans were rather self involved, where as ponies thought and acted more as a group. Where Pete saw an inherent evil, Celestia simply saw nature. Ponies were of a herd kind, they lived in groups before and continued to live in them even now, they were limited in number. Humans on the other hand had developed a sense of self interest, and it was a thought prevalent in the media. They were encouraged to do everything in their power to raise their own status, even if that meant dragging others down and few outwardly complained about it. It was seen as normal, profiting off the uneducated, the weak, the sick. Capitalism at its finest.

Celestia sighed again and changed the channel on the television behind her. The night was slow, and she was still some what tipsy from the party she had just left at Pete's apartment. Luckily for her, Pete had decided to break his usual rule of not drinking, allowing her to slip off unnoticed. The princess knew that she would have to explain to him one day, but for now it was best if he didn't know. Pete would insist that she stop, that she would be in danger, which might be true, but was more likely part of his overstated prejudice against his kind.

“What makes one so vehemently against his entire species though?” Celestia asked herself, tapping a finger against her chin.

Sure, Pete was thrown off by media bias, bigots, a possibly untrustworthy government, and all of that, but that doesn't drive someone to be so violently opposed to the whole of his kind. Celestia had studied the workings of the mind, psychology, when her obliviousness to her sister's envy cost her 1000 years of time with Luna. The psyche was a fragile thing, she knew this now, and wounds to it did not simply heal on their own. It was her only idea. Something had happened, possibly a series of events that cultivated his distrust for others. Even the perception of abuse can be as damaging as real abuse when it comes to the mind. Of course, she wasn't exactly able to simply tell Pete to lay on a couch and ask him how he feels. She had to be more subtle, however, being subtle took more time, and their time remaining was indeterminate.

In either event, the princess was determined to help the human who had given her and her subjects such deference. She realized they could have ended up with someone much worse than Pete, and one good deed does deserve another. Helping him overcome some form of trauma would perfect, in her mind. To leave him with a higher quality of life, whether that means fixing his issues or...

Celestia pressed a knuckle to her lips in thought. If Pete was against humankind, perhaps he would feel better among ponies. She knew it was a silly idea, the differences between the two races were much smaller than Pete believed them to be, but if he really believed he would be happier in Equestria then it might be worth taking him back.

“It wouldn't be difficult,” she muttered to herself, “Assuming we figure this whole thing out.”

Progress still had not been made on the spell to take them home, despite the efforts of, what Celestia believed, to be the three greatest minds of magic pouring over the problem day and night. Twilight was convinced it was a problem with her numbers, either she missed something or had forgotten something when she copied the notes from her memory. The unicorn had since started rewriting the formula, recreating it almost from scratch to make sure she had missed nothing. Meanwhile, Celestia and Luna had gone through what she'd already written down at least a dozen times. The theory was sound, but had failed in practice.

Tests would be required to figure out what was wrong, but they couldn't simply bounce from reality to reality. The fabric of time and space was already potentially damaged, getting back home would be risky enough.

Celestia shook her head and sighed again. It had been less than ten minutes. Her thoughts were going to consume her if she didn't do something. The princess in disguise spent the rest of her shift attempting to keep busy, even if it meant checking the shelves sixteen times over. An odd sense of relief washed over her whenever a customer entered, and a strange feeling of boredom was left when they exited.

It was close to three in the morning when she teleported back home, to Pete's home. Turning back into her normal alicorn self at the sound of loud music, Celestia was surprised to find the group passed out in various places around the room. The princess walked over to the stereo and turned it off, her head throbbing enough from the late night, and surveyed the aftermath of the party. No more alcohol, each mare collapsed in her own area, except-

A knock at the door startled Celestia. Realizing that Pete was likely totally unconscious in his bedroom from drinking, she quickly changed back into her human form, rushing to ensure the person knocking did not wake the other four legged occupants, and opened the door. A slightly older man, clean shaved, well groomed, and wearing a blue uniform, was at the door. A police officer, Celestia recognized the uniform from the news.

“Yes, officer?” she unintentionally yawned, the late night catching up to her.

“We've gotten several noise complaints,” he replied, looking unamused at her yawn.

“I'm sorry about that. We had a bit of a soirée tonight and-”

“Yeah, yeah, a party is a party, and unless you're a nightclub with proper soundproofing this city says you quiet down at 12:30pm.” he said all of this while scribbling on a pad of some kind. Without missing a beat he pulled the page out and handed it to Celestia.

Somewhat confused, Celestia took the paper and stared at it. A citation for noise violation. By the time she looked up the cop was gone down the hall. Quietly, the princess stepped back inside, closing the door, and slid the ticket under some items on a shelf. She would take care of that herself by the end of the week. There was no need to trouble Pete any more than they had.

She released the spell, reverting to an alicorn yet again, and practically collapsed in a corner. At least the party had done its job. There would be a distinct lack of tension for the next few days, at least, while everyone recovered.

In Dreams

“Usually this is me and Celestia in the mornings,” Pete chuckled, his legs hanging off the top of his apartment block, the night sky hanging over head.

Luna laughed a little in response. “I'm well aware, but a little change of pace is good, isn't it?”

Pete nodded and looked at the sky. The full moon was steadily rising in the distance, the stars were out and shining brightly, despite the city lights below. The early Autumn air was cool, but not freezing, Pete's preferred temperature. The human took in a deep breath of the night air and let it out slowly. Many things had gone wrong in his life, but this night was perfect. Clear skies, idle chatter with the pony princess of night, and a quiet city below.

Pete suddenly blinked, “A quiet city...”

Luna looked at him, slightly confused. Pete's mind was in motion, however, and he didn't notice her look. Instead, he noticed the moon. He was sure they had been sitting here for hours, yet the moon had not moved. It had also started to form that cities were never this quiet, nor could the sky be this bright with the lights below. Something was wrong.

He looked up to ask Luna what was happening, but found she had vanished. Pete jumped up and looked around, but saw nothing at all. The city skyline had vanished. No, the city itself had disappeared. A creeping sense of dread filled his stomach as he looked down. His apartment was gone as well. Immediately he started falling through the gaping nothingness that had been the city and all was black as far as he could see.

“Fucking nightmares!” Pete shouted to the empty space around him, and then closed his eyes. Internally he counted to three.

One

Pete had discovered a long time ago the secret to waking up from dreams. Once he realized he was in one all he had to do was concentrate on opening his eyes.

Two

There was no visible bottom to the fall, but Pete wasn't interested in finding out. On three he would snap his eyelids open as fast as he could, which would cause his eyes in reality to open as well and wake him up.

THREE

Pete gasped and sat up, his chest pounding, lungs starving for air, brain still flooded with the natural chemicals to induce sleep and mild paralytic to keep from thrashing about during dreams. It was night, that was true, but the more he strained himself the more he remembered. It hadn't been night when he'd fallen asleep. In fact, he had not fallen asleep at all, it was more like he was knocked unconscious.

Physically shaking himself, stretching out to get his blood pumping, Pete looked around. He was in the middle of the living room floor, his many four legged guests each passed out as he had been. All of them except the princesses. Pete groaned and stood up, his body protesting, demanding more sleep. His eyelids were still heavy and he struggled not to yawn every few seconds. Exerting every ounce of his willpower, Pete made his way across the room, avoiding a couple of sleeping mares, and pushed his way out onto the rooftop.

The moment he cleared the threshold of the French doors everything became clearer. As if his brain had been stuffed with fluff just a moment ago, and suddenly it was gone. The evening air filled his lungs and his exhale seemed to carry all the mist from his mind. He turned back around and looked into the living room, making sure the alicorns were missing. Nodding to himself assuredly, Pete grasped the rung of the ladder attached to his block and climbed up to the roof of it.

He found Luna, alone, nervously biting her lip, eyes closed in concentration, and horn glowing dimly. Pete looked around shortly for Celestia, but could not see her anywhere. Moving carefully, Pete walked up behind Luna and stood there, expecting her to notice him. After almost a minute he gave up and announced himself, startling the princess.

“Pete!” she shouted, turning around, her eyes wide, “How... when did you get there?”

Pete raised an eyebrow, “I've been here for a bit, and I'm guessing you actually mean how did I escape your sleepy time spell going on downstairs?” Luna's blush was all the confirmation Pete needed. “It was pretty tough, I have to say. I probably took more time shambling out of it than I did standing here, but I've dealt with dreams more than most people have, I think. I'm a lucid dreamer after all, that gives me a bit of an edge when it comes to knowing how to wake up and stay that way.”

Luna slapped a hoof into her face, “A lucid dreamer, my least favorite kind.”

“Care to explain what's going on? Last thing I remember we finished breakfast and Twilight was talking about some dream she had.”

The alicorn paused for a moment, her eyes studying Pete's face, before letting out a deflating sigh.

“We heard Twilight's dream, and I recognized something about it.”

Pete folded his arms in impatience.

“To make a very long story much shorter, Nightmare Moon is part of my magic. We exist together, in a sense, and part of it … escaped.”

The human blinked, “Excuse me, escaped? As in is now free in the human world?”

Luna shook her head, “No, she escaped into the dreamscape. She only got as far as Twilight Sparkle before we all woke up, however. That is why I put you all to sleep, and sealed you inside the apartment. I can control things within that limited sphere, and I need to find that fragment of my darker self before it takes someone over.”

“Someone,” Pete noticed, “Not somepony.”

Luna nodded grimly.

Pete tapped his foot, a nervous tick from his childhood, and thought hard. Even a piece of Nightmare escaping into the human world could be devastating, especially if it managed to keep its magic. He knew he couldn't let that happen, but how could he help? He was just a human, not especially smart, strong, fast, intuitive, barely average. How could he help stop a large magical pony that due to sheer size and muscle mass could murder him, ignoring the million ways it could use magic on him.

“You … control dreams, right?” Pete looked at Luna, an idea forming.

“I do not normally, I generally just watch them. Why?”

Pete rubbed his chin, “Could you insert me into the dreams of the girls downstairs?”

Luna looked shocked, “What ever for?”

“Well, if this piece of Nightmare is jumping from dream to dream it could take you days to find it, but because I'm a lucid dreamer I could help you look for it. Move between the dreams while you do the same, doubling our chances of finding it.”

The Princess of the Night thought about it. At first she wanted to laugh, but slowly the sense dawned on her. Twice as many eyes would speed things up, and since Pete would be tethered to her magically she would know where he was at all times. When he spotted the culprit and woke himself up she could move right to the fragment of her other self, assuming he would be the one to find it to begin with.

“The plan has … merits...” she muttered quietly, but audibly.

Pete nodded, “I'm not saying you can't do this by yourself, but it's getting pretty late. People will be going to bed soon, and if this thing manages to breech your sphere of influence and get out into the minds of the city we'll never find it.”

Luna nodded gravely, “You are right. We must contain the piece of Nightmare's power before it can slip away. … Return to the living room and allow my spell to take its course. Once you are again asleep I shall give you access to the dreams of the others. Remember, we must be swift. Do not dawdle and stare at their dreams, search quickly and move on.”

Again Pete nodded, and then turned and descended the ladder. Opening the door back into the living room he felt the full impact of the spell once more. He barely managed to close the door behind him before practically collapsing. Luna was clearly working overtime to knock him back out. Pete curled onto his side, his head resting on his arm, and let the magic wash over his mind.

Books. Everywhere books. Stacks and stacks of perilously stacked books. Pete blinked rapidly, the names of the books swirling and changing, never cohesive enough to read, a sign he was dreaming. The sea of books was many hued and labyrinthine in construction. Pete slipped through it cautiously, but quickly, until he heard a voice.

“NO! It can't be!” the voice of Twilight cried, “I know I sent a report in yesterday. … or was that the day before? I can't possibly be late again?! Or was this letter from yesterday? Of course it's not, you just got it!”

Pete came around a stack and found the purple unicorn waist deep in books and papers, her mane a frazzled mess, bags under her eyes, and her eyes themselves wild. Clearly she hadn't slept in some time. The human tried to make contact but was ignored, as if he didn't exist at all.

“If only I had someone, anyone, to help me sort this mess out,” the dream Twilight lamented. “It was so easy at first, a simple check list kept everything running smoothly, but its all piling up and up and up. More things get added to that stupid list than I can check off in a day.”

Pete cocked his head as a realization hit him. This was a dream of Twilight without Spike. Her assistant might occasionally bumble, but most of the time he kept the smaller details in check while Twilight focused on the rest. This was a Twilight with no help, writing friendship reports, helping friends, running the library, doing independent research, studying magic, conducting experiments, and it was too much.

“A nightmare,” Pete muttered aloud. “Is that what it's doing? … If it gains power from negative emotions then maybe it's generating them in here so it can break free. And its been doing it all day.”

The epiphany that the Nightmare Moon fragment might be stronger than he originally expected hit Pete harder than it should have. A sound broke his worry though, a sudden laugh from the other end of the room pulled his attention back to the moment.

No longer caring about the world around him, Pete dashed towards the sound, passing through the columns of books he had avoided earlier. It seemed he was almost like a ghost in these dreams. He came to a wall at the other end of the room and looked around. The only thing he found was a door. After wandering around for another moment or so, and saying keywords into the air, like Nightmare Moon, he opened the door. Certain that whoever had laughed had been what he was looking for, and figuring the door as the only way out.

Pete had expected another part of Twilight's dream, but instead he was outside. In front of him was Applejack, and in front of her was a field of withered trees and brown grass. More than a little shocked, Pete explored around, finding a busted sign on the ground that read Sweet Apple Acres. He turned back to AJ and tried his best to get her attention, anything, but it was again to no avail. Finally, Applebloom rolled up, the filly in a wheelchair with broken back legs.

“Ah wasn't ready for buckin', sis,” the filly said coldly, “We needed you here, Mac couldn't handle all the work himself, and you know Granny is too old.”

“Ah'm sorry,” was all Applejack could say.

“Sorry doesn't bring back the farm! Or Granny...”

Pete swallowed hard and tried not to be sick. He didn't know what would happen if he threw up in the dream and he wasn't interested to find out. Shaking his head, his whole body slightly shuddering at the sight before him, Pete tried to pull his mind back together. Taking several deep breaths, he turned around and thought about things. Namely, he thought about these nightmares. They seemed organic, not fabricated, but rather like they were things the mares thought about. It made sense, nothing would generate more fear and despair than their own brooding thoughts being manifest.

“I guess I know why you've been so hard on me, too,” Pete said to himself, once again taking in the sight of the dead farmland. “It's not going to be like this, I promise.”

A fist clenched, Pete started to explore the surroundings. He didn't see anything that hinted towards the escaped Nightmare fragment, and he didn't hear anything like last time either. The only thing around was the Apple family house. After making sure that nothing was out of place, or rather what passed for out of place in this practical hell-scape, Pete made his way to the wood house. In the last dream a door led him to this one, so he decided to experiment.

Pulling open the door of the house, Pete found himself again outside, though this time it was dark. He turned around, but found the portal he'd just came through had vanished. Looking around it became obvious that he was in thick undergrowth, like a jungle or forest. The trees completely obstructed the sky, making it impossible to tell if it was day or night, and woods around him echoed with strange sounds.

If this were a normal forest Pete might have felt more okay, but, given he was in the mind of a being from another universe, there was no telling what lurked in the shadows. Telling himself it was just a dream did not help one bit. This was no ordinary darkness, this was thick, impenetrable, almost somatic. It set his teeth on edge.

After walking for several minutes, Pete finally came to the dream's inhabitant. Fluttershy was curled up in the middle of a tiny clearing, crying. Around her were glowing eyes, watching disdainfully. They despised this butter colored mare. Pete could only imagine what she had tried before he arrived, the beginning of this nightmare. Fluttershy, lover of animals, being abused by them. He could almost sense a disturbed feeling of delight in the air, the creatures in the shadows enjoyed seeing her in pain, they were elated to torment her like this.

Pete felt his teeth start to grind, and he wished with all his might that he could burn the woods around them to cinders, but a laugh stopped him. Again, from the other side of the dreamscape, the same laugh as before. Anger fueling him this time, Pete rushed forward at a sprint, determined to find the sick thing responsible for this. Moving at full speed, he saw the edge of the woods, but there wasn't any light.

Breaking through, Pete stopped dead and looked around in shock. There was nothing, nothing at all. It was if he were floating in space, but without the stars. Again, the previous dream had disappeared behind him. On the opposite side of space was a door, like the others it was plain, wooden, and with a brass handle. In the middle of the area was a young, flat maned Pinkie Pie.

The filly was muttering something to herself, low enough that Pete couldn't hear it, but he could make a guess. Pinkie loved pretty much everything, so what was the one thing she would hate? Nothingness. A complete void of everything, no ponies, no beings, no items, nothing. As he walked towards the door, the blank space clearly devoid of his target, Pete heard the filly's mutterings.

“Everyone leaves eventually,” the young Pinkie said, spitefully. “Nothing lasts.”

A part of Pete felt another pang of familiarity with this concept. Maybe Pinkie thought the same things he did, deep down. That no one was truthful about themselves, that all they do is wait for the best time to leave you behind. Leave you with nothing. It was a dark place, much like the void around them, and Pete did not have time for it today. Greater things were on the line than personal philosophies.

Averting his gaze and steeling his resolve, Pete refocused on the door, moving purposefully towards it, and practically yanking it open. Whatever was causing this he would stop it. Even if he believed the worst in everyone it didn't strike him as a reason for people to suffer. Stepping through the threshold, the door closed behind him, and the small, pink filly looked up.

“Of course you left, like all the others. Pinkie is all alone...”

The small Pinkie Pie sat there with her eyes on the floor, and so she missed when someone else appeared in the 'room' with her. A chunky kid dressed in all black, his hair grown long over his face, and his hefty physique wrapped up in a large coat. He silently sat with his back to the filly and kept his own gaze at the floor. The dream Pinkie was completely unaware of this newcomer until he broke the seemingly endless silence.

“All people do is hurt you,” he said quietly, but the emptiness around them seemed to amplify the words, causing Pinkie to jump and look behind her. “It's better to be alone than to let other's tear themselves away from you. At least it doesn't hurt when they go.”

The strange pair sat together in the darkness, whispering thoughts of empty loneliness to each other

Pete looked around and found himself some place familiar, but impossible. Outside the sun was shining, pegasi cleared away clouds from the sky, and inside sat Rarity, designing a dress. The ghostly human invader snooped around what was clearly Carousel Boutique. He saw nothing out of the ordinary, no mocking laughter, no dead relatives, Rarity wasn't hideously deformed, which Pete almost expected to be her worst nightmare. All was normal. Against his better judgment, Pete walked over to a love seat meant for clients, and sat down.

All of the recent horrors one after another had left Pete mentally battered. He knew that some form of darkness was lurking here in this dreamscape, but at the moment it was a quiet day in Ponyville. It was something Pete had dreamed of being part of for so long. He craved this moment deep within himself, in his soul. Listening to the birds chirping, the scratch of Rarity's pencil on paper, and the mare's humming, put Pete at ease with things. He scarcely realized that he was stretched out, completely relaxed, until somepony burst into the boutique.

“Excuse me, Rarity,” Twilight said, a dress pulled behind her in her magical grip, “I need this fitted and hemmed up before the gala.”

Rarity smiled slightly, “Of course, that will be no trouble at all. Step over here and I'll get your measurements.”

Twilight did as she was told, and Rarity took her measuring tape and did as she was asked. Measuring every area of Twilight, nodding quietly, before walking back to her table and scribbling something on a piece of paper.

“Here is what the work will cost you,” the fashionista said, magically floating the page to Twilight.

The librarian nodded, “That's what I expected. I'll pay when I pick it up.”

Rarity rolled her eyes, “Of course, you want to make sure it fits and all. Thank you for stopping by.”

Twilight quickly trotted out the door. Rarity waited a moment and then scoffed, picking the dress up with her magic and stepping over to her sewing machine. Meanwhile, alarms were going off in Pete's head. Rarity was the Element of Generosity, she wouldn't charge Twilight for a simple job like that, and certainly not since she was invited to gala as well. The two mares were very curt with each other, borderline spiteful.

While Rarity was distracted with the dress another pony entered the shop. Rainbow Dash trotted in and looked around, Fluttershy steps behind her. RD seemed peeved at something, but Fluttershy looked half terrified.

“Why do you need a dress from here, exactly?” Rainbow asked her timid friend.

“I-It's the cheapest place, and it's close by,” Fluttershy replied.

Dash rolled her eyes, “I would pay for another dress if you got it somewhere else. Rarity is the most self absorbed mare in Ponyville, and that means a lot coming from me.”

Pete stood up, grasping what the idea behind this nightmare was. Even though dream Rarity seemed fine, she had no real friends. She was Rarity if she was just a little more over the line. Not the Element of Generosity, simply a fashion mare that needs to make money to chase her dreams. Although Pete knew that the mane six wouldn't abandon her if she were like this, Rarity didn't. Rarity's fears were that if she wasn't generous the others wouldn't like her. She had seen these things in herself and actively fought against them, and this was if she ever failed.

Pete had seen enough, and could see that the Nightmare fragment was nowhere around. There was only one mare left to visit. With a shaky exhale, Pete opened the door to the boutique and stepped outside, and into what would be the nightmare of Rainbow Dash.

A sense of awkward dread filled Pete as he looked around. It was Ponyville, as one would expect it, though much more real than it ever looked on television. Clenching his fists to keep from shaking, he stayed alert. Pete couldn't figure out why this was the dream that made him nervous. After everything he had seen so far this, like Rarity's, was pretty normal.

“I can't believe it,” Fluttershy said, the voice attracting Pete's attention. The shy pegasus was walking next to her usually confident rainbow maned friend, but something was off. RD did not seem confident at all.

“It'll be fine,” the cyan pegasus replied with a half-hearted smile, “Lots of pegasi get injured like this.”

Pete felt his stomach flip a few dozen times as it started to burn with fury.

“But they fly again, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said, riling Pete's emotions further.

“Now why is that?” a voice said behind him, a cool, sadistic voice that somehow managed to also sound intrigued.

Pete turned around, expecting to see a form of Nightmare Moon, but he was caught off guard. Behind him stood himself, if he were made from shadows. The being's eyes were a piercing yellow, its skin and clothes jet black, but otherwise it looked just like him. The shadowy form stepped forward, the sunlight seeming to dim as he drew closer.

“Why her, of all the mares? I killed Applejack's family, trapped Fluttershy in the Everfree Forest with the meanest of beasts, removed Spike from Twilight's life, removed Pinkie Pie and Rarity's friends, but when Rainbow Dash gets into an all too possible accident and can't fly any more that is where you draw the line.”

Pete knew what he should do. He should wake up, Luna would discover where her escaped darkness fled and this would be over. Something stopped him. More important than why Rainbow's predicament upset him most was why this thing looked like him. Was it messing with him?

“You really want to know?” it asked, as if it were reading Pete's mind, “I'll tell you. Nightmare Moon is just a spark, a darkness risen by something much more powerful, and that spark traveled. To you.” The shadow grinned at Pete. “Your darkness made manifest, spreading all the wonderful misery you love to dish out.”

“Bullshit!” Pete grit his teeth and spat the word out, “I didn't want to do any of this!”

The shade laughed, “Didn't you? The very first thing you did was make them feel afraid and alone. You wanted that, you wanted them to trust you explicitly. You wanted control.”

“No, I mean, they had to listen to reason. Bad things happen, I didn't want them getting hurt,” Pete protested.

“I didn't want them getting hurt,” the shadow mocked, flapping his hand like a mouth, “The pathetic excuse of a coward. That's what you are, Pete Powell, a coward. Afraid of getting hurt, even by these pastel horses. Afraid of stepping out of your own shell. They can't hurt you if you hurt them first, land the decisive blow before they have the chance to even defend themselves. Crush their expectations so that when you try even a single modicum it seems like you're doing something gallant.”

Pete mashed his teeth together until they hurt as he listened. When the shadow stopped Pete stood there, staring with rage. After what seemed like forever, Pete opened his mouth.

“What do you want?”

The shade raised a brow, “What do I want? Well, let me put it like this: I came from you, I'm part of you. Luna wants to make me not part of you, she feels responsible for my creation.” The shadow Pete stepped forward until his face was practically mixed with Pete's. “I want back in. I want to fester inside of you and drive you absolutely mad. Because I can't do shit to these ponies, except fuck with their dreams, but you...” He laughed, “I can do so, so much more.”

Pete looked at Rainbow Dash, the mare sitting at a table, the look on her face saying everything. Without flight she felt empty, she felt like Pete had before the ponies came. He turned his gaze back to the shadow.

“You come back, and all this ends?”

The dark Pete nodded, “I didn't want to leave in the first place, but you'll have to convince Luna to leave me alone. Otherwise I'll make things much worse next time.”

“Fine,” Pete half growled, grabbing the shadow's shoulders. The alternate Pete looked at his counter part's hands in confusion, then back up. Just in time to see Pete lean back and slam his forehead into the shadow's face.

Pete woke again with a start, pulling a huge lungful of air into himself and looking around quickly. The mares were still asleep, but Luna was now in the room, her eyes firmly locked on the human. Groaning, Pete struggled to his feet and approached the Princess. Rotating his shoulder, which was sore from sleeping on the floor, and adjusting his glasses, he noted her acidic gaze.

“What have you done?” she practically shouted.

“I made a deal with the devil,” Pete replied, half sarcastically.

“The devil would have given you fair terms,” Luna spat back, completely serious.

“So, you were watching?”

“Of course I was. As soon as it stopped running I found it. I heard everything.”

Pete smiled, “Good, then you know you have to leave it alone.”

“That thing will ruin you, human!” Luna did shout this time, her voice causing several ponies to jolt awake, everyone of them breathing hard and looking around, confused and sore.

Pete wasn't going to let Luna take the lead here. No, there was a much greater matter at hand now. With the shadow back home, and Pete finally understanding what it truly was, everything was fine, except...

“Where's Celestia?”

Luna blinked in surprise, but quickly recovered. “My sister has nothing to do-”

“Every time I turn around she's gone, Luna. I'm not blind, a bit slow maybe, but eventually I can notice when a large white horse is missing from this tiny apartment.” Luna winced at the term 'horse.' “Now, tell me where she is.”

The Princess of Night opened her mouth for a retort, but silenced it quickly. “She's at work,” she said after a minute. Pete tilted his head, and Luna explained. The Changeling's ability to shapeshift wasn't exclusive to them, it was a form of magic. One that Celestia and Luna were well versed in. Since the second week of their isolation Celestia had changed into a human form and then teleported off the roof to find a job. She was working at a gas station not terribly far from Pete's apartment.

Turning around, Pete walked into his room and grabbed his jacket and shoes. Dressed in a pair of loose cargo shorts, a deep blue shirt, and his black shoes and jacket, Pete picked his keys up and headed for the door. Luna called after him, but was suddenly distracted by the mane six asking her about their missing day. This left Pete free to escape the building and make his way to the gas station where Celestia was. As he hit the street and started walking a breeze blew past, bringing with it a wind much colder than the one in his dreams.

What Lies Over the Rainbow

Pete watched the human Celestia from a fairly hidden spot outside of the gas station. She looked like an oddly proper punk with her bright pink hair and attendant uniform. He could tell from a distance that she was still taller than he was by a couple of inches, but the rest would have to wait. The young man hardly wanted someone to think he was creeping on the blatantly attractive cashier, and he definitely didn't want her to see him just yet.

He stepped across the street, thankful for thin evening traffic, and placed himself against an old stone building. Keeping his eyes on the front door of the station, Pete waited. He didn't know what exactly he would say, and his mind started to quickly pour through possible scenarios. They ranged from an outright argument to simple conversation. All he really knew was that he had to confront her about this.

You know it's because she lied, right?

Pete shivered at the voice in his head and looked around at the practically empty street. Assured that the voice was only in his mind, he pulled out his cellphone and placed it to his ear.

“And what makes you say that?”

The old on the phone trick, huh? Look, think about it, everyone eventually hurts you, lies to you, uses you, and you toss them aside. You're mad because that's exactly what Celestia is doing.

“How would you know that?” Pete nearly shouted.

Please, it's obvious. She was taking advantage of your generosity, you pay for everything while she builds up a nest egg. Twilight figures out her spell, Celestia gives you money and goes, “Oh, here, this was always for you. To repay you.” If Twilight doesn't, Celestia moves the ponies out and away from you. All those nice little emotional connections, gone.

Pete scoffed and dropped his phone back into his pocket, sneering at the empty air in front of him. The voice simply laughed and slowly went quiet, but not vanishing. Pete could feel the new entity lingering in his mind as he stood there, watching the gas station. Part of him wished the shadow would shut up and go away, but he knew that new voice would always be there, watching everything he did with snide commentary in tow. Apart from adjusting to his new “companion,” Pete let his mind wander on topics. Primarily, what was going to happen with the ponies this evening.

Normally they would all be getting ready for bed, but they had just slept for nearly 12 straight hours. On top of that, they had been knocked out less than an hour after waking up. It also occurred to him that Luna was probably exhausted from being up all night before and keeping her magic going all day. He expected tonight would be obscenely busy with all mane six awake and both princesses asleep. Vaguely, he also hoped that Celestia and Luna would be tired enough to not be bothered by the usual shenanigans that took place when the six were up.

Pete let out a small sigh and went to check his phone when the doors to the gas station opened. Glancing upwards, he saw another uniformed person enter, most likely Celestia's shift relief. Pulling his hand out of his jacket pocket and stepping away from the wall, Pete prepared to confront the wayward princess. Sure enough, after only a couple more minutes of waiting the pink haired human princess walked out of the gas station. Unlike Pete's plan, however, she spotted him from across the street. Recognition flashed on her face for just a moment, and she seemed to mull over what to do as the crossing light changed. Celestia stepped forward, a smile on her face.

“How did you find out?” she asked him calmly, once she had gotten across the road.

“Luna told me,” Pete replied, his previous thoughts on what to say quickly evaporating from his mind like a drop of water into a sizzling pan.

Celestia tapped her chin thoughtfully, “Certainly she didn't just tell you. She wouldn't have unless you confronted her.”

Pete nodded slowly, “Yeah. I noticed that some times you just aren't around. I also found the ticket the police left us.”

The human shaped princess sighed, “I knew I should have hidden that better. Well, now you know. The mighty princess god of the ponies, mopping up sick in a gas station bathroom and taking the money from people who seem quite ungrateful most of the time.”

“You didn't have to do this.”

“Yes, I did. Sitting in that apartment while you spend every last dollar you have ever earned is not right.”

“It's my money, I can spend it on what I want,” Pete retorted, finally making eye contact.

Celestia nodded in return, “On what you want, not what we need. If the situation was reversed, would you honestly sit around and do nothing while Twilight paid for everything?”

Pete felt the steam instantly drain out of his argument. Because he wouldn't sit around, it would feel bad. It would feel like those terrible fanfics where the protagonist does nothing, but gets all kinds of praise and awe just for existing. Pete wasn't worthy of that.

Quick witted as always, Celestia realized that conversation was done, and swiftly moved on by asking, “Now, what is this strange aura you're emitting? It's almost … sinister.”

With a long sigh as an introduction, Pete explained what had transpired that evening with what was supposedly Luna's missing darkness. Celestia stayed calm through the whole conversation, the pair eventually heading back up the street, towards Pete's apartment, midway through the story due to an increase in people on the street. At the end of the tale, however, when Pete revealed the true nature of the being, his own darkness brought to life by exposure to Luna's latent Nightmare magic, Celestia's facade cracked. The princess became visibly perturbed by this news, her eyes growing wide and her jaw almost going slack.

“So I cut a deal with the guy, said as long as he doesn't mess with anyone else, he can stay in my head,” Pete concluded.

Celestia was silent, but still noticeably upset. Pete knew that she had to be very deep in thought because the pair were walking up into his building and yet she simply followed his lead. Pete wasn't sure what the reaction of anyone that happened to be standing around would be if they saw him with a beautiful girl, considering the type of guy he was, and he certainly wouldn't care to explain to any of them that got curious why they hadn't seen her and would not see her again. Cautious as they entered the building, Pete quickly moved to the elevator, hoping it was empty, and pressed the button. Thankfully, everything on the lobby floor was empty.

“Pete,” Celestia began, “This 'darkness' is far more dangerous than you give it credit for.”

“Because it turned Luna into a force of evil? I know, but since I'm not capable of magic as long as it stays away from any of you it can be as destructive as it wants.”

Celestia frowned at the human, “You do not understand. This thing will eat you alive. Even without magic it will slowly influence you, cause you to make stupid decisions, things you won't be able to come back from.”

Pete shrugged, “That sounds like things I would do anyway.”

The human Celestia practically scowled at Pete. “This shade consumed my sister for a thousand years, do not simply shrug off its power!”

The pair were interrupted by the arrival ding of the elevator, Pete seizing his chance and stepping inside before Celestia could say anything more. His fatal flaw was that he was now trapped inside of a small box with her until the reached the top of his building.

“Well?” Celestia prodded.

Pete sighed, “Look, I know this is kind of a big thing to you and Luna, but people make stupid decisions here all of the time. Nightmare Moon was a threat because she had power, I don't. I'm a single human being with middle class income, no powers, no drive to speak of, no harmful knowledge, apart from some vaguely remembered college chemistry. This 'shadow' isn't going to be of any threat to the world at large, and that's what's important.”

Celestia shook her head in exasperation, but kept quiet. What Pete did not realize was those exact thoughts were what made his race capable. He wanted to believe in all of the bad because he outright ignored the good. This technologically advanced planet would not have been possible if humans had only ever acted out of greed, self need, and spite, as Pete saw it. There were millions of people that had the same thoughts he did, as long as someone is safe, as long as the majority are bettered, but the question was how to make him see that.

They arrived at the top floor, Pete suddenly thankful for the silence between him and Celestia. As they stepped out into the empty hallway, however, there came a bright flash. Pete turned towards Celestia, the source of the light, and found her gone. He stood there, gaping for a moment, trying to comprehend how she had access to magic as a human, and then growled as he realized she was keeping up her ruse for the Elements of Harmony. She would enter the apartment from the roof access, once more looking like her pony princess self, and they would be none the wiser.

Pete trudged the last few feet to his door, accepting defeat and a long night of pony-sitting ahead. Shoving the key into the knob and twisting both the lock and doorknob open at once, he was surprised to find the apartment quiet. Entering his home, Pete discovered most of the lights were off, though the television was on, and almost everypony was in their normal sleeping positions on the floor. The exception to this was Luna, who was speaking with the recently entered Celestia, and Rainbow Dash, who was sitting on the couch with the remote wrapped in one of her wings.

With a newfound reason to be quiet, Pete carefully closed the door behind him, removed his shoes and jacket, then moved towards the couch. Sitting on the far end, opposite to Rainbow, Pete glanced at the five sleeping ponies, then to the sisters, and finally at RD herself. Catching her attention, Pete tilted his head towards the mares on the floor, silently asking what was up.

“The others didn't want to get their sleep patterns messed up,” Rainbow Dash whispered, “It doesn't really matter to me, I can nap any time.”

Pete smiled, in spite of his fallen spirits, and chuckled softly. He knew exactly the kind of skill, he possessed it himself. The ability to sleep any time, anywhere. It was a strange and wondrous power that often bothered those around him that couldn't find the time to sleep. He leaned back against the couch and sighed, his smile sliding off. Looking at the circle of mares on the floor something came to mind.

“Won't the TV wake them up?” Pete asked, rolling his head to the right to face RD.

Rainbow rolled her eyes and pointed at the screen with a hoof, “Subtitles,” she whispered back, “I can read almost as fast as I fly.”

Again, Pete chuckled despite his some what sour mood. He wasn't sure if it was her bright colors, or just her overtly positive attitude, but being around Rainbow Dash the past few weeks always seemed to bolster his own mood. The ponies quickly grasped the concept of movies, mostly when Pete compared them to incredibly high budget plays. Twilight, spending almost all of her time on the internet, had consumed many hours of documentaries, often checking their sources and cross referencing them with opinions that disagreed. Fluttershy and Rarity had been caught watching dramas or romance films more than a few times, Pinkie Pie was obviously interested in most forms of comedy film, and Pete was certain he'd caught sight of a certain farm pony eying the screen anytime Dash stopped on an old Western. As for the rainbow maned mare herself, she watched pretty much anything, mostly movies with lots of action, and she had taken quite the shining to super hero movies. She had a particular fondness for Spider-Man of all heroes.

Tonight, however, Pete was emotionally exhausted, but physically awake, so his mind barely registered what was on the screen. It wasn't until an elbow poked his side that his brain turned on. The TV was showing a rerun of the Terminator franchise, again, and Dash was facing him. What he had thought was an elbow had actually just been a hoof. Looking around quickly to make sure nothing was actually wrong, he tilted his head at the cyan mare.

“I'm hungry,” she stated plainly.

Pete hadn't thought about it, but the rest of the mane six had simply gone to bed, princesses included, and the lack of dishes meant they hadn't eaten. They'd slept for almost a whole twenty four hours, closer to eighteen by now, and they had not eaten a thing. At that moment, Pete realized his own stomach was growling, and he let out a half sigh half chuckle. He had slept twelve hours himself, with no food, of course he would be hungry too.

With a nod of his head towards the kitchen, Pete and Rainbow silently moved from the couch to the fridge. Pete was no chef, he could make very bare bones meals, but Rainbow Dash was not a terribly picky girl, and Pete did have a whole fridge full of fruit. Rather than making two items, the young man grabbed a fair sized bowl and started scooping random fruits into it. RD took a moment to catch on, thinking he was just going to serve whole fruits until Pete reached into a drawer and pulled out a large kitchen knife. With an amount of speed and finesse that belied his lack of actual cooking knowledge, Pete pealed, sliced, cored, chopped, and dumped many cubes of fruit back into the bowl all at once. Tossing the excess into the garbage, he turned around and displayed the fruit salad to his only conscious guest, with only a hint of a grin.

Rainbow responded with an unimpressed eye roll, taking the bowl from Pete and depositing it on the kitchen table before popping a few cubes of fruit into her mouth. It was around now, Pete having shrugged away from his melancholy, that he noticed something off about Rainbow Dash. He had only known her for a few weeks, and certainly the others would have known better, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was just … off. Leaning against the counter, Pete watched the pegasus for a minute, trying to see if there was anything visible that maybe he had picked up on.

Of course, one does not watch the backside of a mare without the mare in question noticing. Rainbow blushed slightly, a very faint blush that was well hidden by her fur, believing Pete was watching her backside for other reasons. It wasn't until she turned her head and saw his concerned expression that she fully spun around and faced him.

“Is everything okay?” Pete asked with a clear indication that he wasn't talking about the fruit.

Rainbow tilted her head slightly, “What's that supposed to mean?”

Pete shrugged in response, “I dunno. You just seem … jittery, I guess.”

Dash let out a short, faint chuckle. “Try being trapped in a box when you have wings for almost a month.”

The human rubbed his chin thoughtfully, then gently tapped the blue pegasus on the top of the nose. “Wait here,” was all he said before quietly tip toeing off towards his bedroom.

He returned moments later with his laptop, and a grin plastered on his face. Pulling a chair up beside his own and motioning for RD to take a seat, Pete opened the computer, entered the password, and started to browse his favorite online repository of old movies. His grin persisted in its size, and stupidity, as he typed Top Gun into the search bar. Rainbow Dash, having no knowledge of most human films, simply raised a brow at the name. Within minutes, however, she knew all too well why Pete had been smiling.

What followed was two hours of the pair trying to stifle their laughter at horribly corny dialogue, avoid skipping the long talking scenes, and Rainbow Dash practically rocking her chair side to side in imitations of the fighter jet movements. Pete had seen the movie more than a few times, but his lack of avionic knowledge kept him from being really invested in the dogfights, though he was impressed at their scale and obvious skill. During the flying scenes however, his attention was far more drawn to the excited pegasus rocking in her chair and flapping her wings ecstatically. Naturally there was a moment early on when Rainbow in particular had to hold back a full on laugh as the discovery was made that the lead character's first name was also Pete. The Pete right next to her simply rolled his eyes and smiled, actually having forgotten the protagonists real name since Maverick was much cooler and more frequently used.

By the end of the two hour period the bowl of fruit was empty, and Pete was feeling surprisingly energized. Usually movies didn't do a lot for him, but tonight he felt like he needed to do something. He couldn't, of course, he had to keep an eye on Rainbow Dash, so he settled for quietly doing some dishes. Dash floated next to him, whispering animatedly about parts of the movie. Once Pete finished the dishes and the couple returned to the couch in the living room he noticed something again. This was much more obvious, and didn't take a genius to figure out. From the right side of the couch, closest to the big glass doors, Rainbow Dash was looking outside at the dark night sky. Pete had hoped that watching a movie about flying would help settle the urges, but he also knew that it ran the risk of doing the opposite.

”I can't take her outside,” he thought to himself, ”It's way too risky. Not to mention I've told them a dozen times that bad things could happen if they leave. I couldn't handle that burden.”

There was a long pause between that thought and the next. A long moment where Pete watched the dimly lit backside of Rainbow Dash's head, the glow of the TV almost draining the color from her mane and coat. The image stuck in his mind, but not as a simple trick of the light. He started to see it more metaphorically, the TV and generally static life draining away her color, her vibrancy. It was an almost infinite amount of time, at least in his mind, as this thought wormed through the whole of his consciousness. He tried to look away, but it was no use, the image had spread too far. Gritting his teeth, Pete stood up quickly, causing RD to spin around in surprise, and walked over to the door. Grabbing his jacket with one hand and pulling the door open with the other, Pete checked the hallway, grabbed his keys, and then motioned for Rainbow to follow him. The cyan mare sat on the couch for another half minute, dumbfounded, before a second, much quicker hand movement from Pete pulled her out of it. Her hooves not even touching the ground, Rainbow Dash floated over to the human and followed him out the door.

Once outside the room Pete abandoned all attempts to be silent. He broke into a jog, moving quickly but carefully down the hallway to the elevator. Stepping around the corner that led to the stairwell, he told Rainbow to stay there while he called the transport. Once it had arrived, empty, as Pete was hoping, he pulled Dash along and pressed the button for the ground floor. He had come this far, there was no point in turning back. Beside him, Rainbow Dash was breathing quickly and grinning wide. Clearly just the speed of going down the hall was a metaphorical breath of fresh air, but in a few minutes she would have a literal one. She had no idea what Pete was planning, but it involved getting her outside, so she was on board.

As soon as the elevator reached the ground floor Pete was out the doors and looking around, RD pressed up against a wall inside the elevator waiting for Pete's signal. Confirming the coast was clear, the pair bolted out the front door of the building onto the nearly empty street. Rainbow pressed herself up against the side of Pete's car, glancing around as he unlocked it. Once the door was open she slid into the backseat floorboard, knowing it was best to keep low, while Pete went around to the driver's side and pulled out into the thin late night traffic.

Both of them were nearly breathless with giddiness and giggles. Pete knew it was dangerous, so did Rainbow, but it was also forbidden, and in more than one way exciting. Pete checked the clock on radio and did some factoring. It wouldn't take him more than a half hour to get to the spot outside the city he was thinking of, meaning one hour round trip. He could give Rainbow Dash roughly two hours of free flying time, as long as she stayed out of general aircraft space, and have her back at the apartment before most of the city folk would wake up. Of course there was always a chance things would go wrong, but that existed with every plan.

Passing the city limits, Pete gave Rainbow the okay to sit up, which she did very cautiously. Outside the car was fairly dark, but a full moon was over head giving everything at least an outline. Most importantly, the sky was clear, meaning flying conditions would be optimal when the moonlight was factored in. Inside the car was actually much darker, the car's headlights seeming to remove light instead of add it. Rainbow Dash watched the outside world rush by, slightly impressed at the speed, but only for a while. Just a few minutes later she was more focused on arriving at their destination where she was positive Pete would let her finally spread her wings properly. The drive had become a waiting game.

“Are we there yet?” Rainbow Dash asked, only moments after losing her interest in the fast passing shadows outside.

Pete laughed hard at the very childish question, “Not quite. About twenty more minutes.”

Rainbow sighed and then wiggled her way up to the passenger seat. Pete glanced at her, but raised no objections. They were cruising past modestly lit suburbs, but the highway kept far enough away that no one would notice her in the front seat before she had a chance to hide. That assumed anyone would be on this lonely stretch of road after midnight, which Pete really doubted. Sitting right beside him now, Rainbow got a better feeling for how driving worked. It was often glossed over in movies, usually being delegated to showing the character shift a few dozen times before the car did some insane stunt. Up close, Rainbow Dash realized that it was much more methodical than that, and seemingly a bit more complicated.

The car wasn't the only thing she noticed. Over the last several days Pete had become somewhat more fond of a brighter color palette. While he still favored his black shoes and coat he had taken to wearing shirts in various blue hues, along with pants he referred to as jeans that were also often blue. RD had pulled Twilight aside that night, after Pete had left, and discussed it with the nerdy unicorn. Back in Equestria, various shades of blue would mean relatively nothing, but since they were all trapped on Earth there were only two mares with blue coats. Rainbow had been secretly apprehensive that Pete was trying to gain the attention of Luna, since most of his new wardrobe was darker blues, but Twilight mentioned that human mating habits were very different and it was certain that Pete didn't realize he was sending any kind of signals. Rainbow Dash needed more than second hoof certain though.

“So,” Dash started, slowly, “I- well, we, as in everypony, sorta noticed that you've changed things up in the clothes department.”

Pete glanced at her sideways with a raised brow, “Uh... what?”

The pegasus rolled her eyes, “You were wearing nothing but black clothes for, like, two weeks straight. Now you're walking around in a lota blues there, and we're not blind.”

“Oh, yeah. It's not a big deal really. I do have more than one color of clothing,” Pete shrugged, “I just preferred black.”

“And that's the only reason, right?” Rainbow pressed.

“Uh, yeah,” Pete responded slowly, “Why?”

RD took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, he really didn't know. “Okay, look, back in Equestria when somepony wants to get the attention of somepony else they wear something that matches their coat. A shirt or skirt, or mane ornament, or something.” She let that hang.

“So, what you're saying is...” Pete squinted a little bit as he thought. “You … thought I was trying to give you a sign?”

Rainbow Dash swallowed hard, but thankfully the car and darkness hid it well. “That's possible, but I'm not the only mare with a blue coat.”

The human paused for a while again before speaking. “Luna. I didn't even think of her.”

Rainbow's heart seemed to skip a beat. He thought of her before one of the royal princesses? Either Pete was incredibly dense or one of the smoothest humans on the planet. Dash didn't mind either way though, she wasn't known for planning that far ahead herself, and she silently added that to a list of things they had in common. Also on that list was headstrong, easily riled, straight forward about important things, but also generally laid back. Those were far from the only things she had taken a notice of, but they were the most prominent.

Pete sighed, breaking the silence that had fallen as RD thought about his last words, “Sorry about that. I didn't mean to cause any confusion. Here a shirt color is just a shirt color.”

“No worries,” Rainbow said with a wave of her hoof, “Twilight kinda explained that to us. Pointed out that humans and ponies wouldn't have the same 'rituals' just because we used to live on the same planet.”

Pete gave a slightly nervous laugh and said, “Yeah,” blandly, Rainbow Dash's last words reminding him of Celestia's offer to take him to Equestria.

Rainbow might have noticed if she hadn't been so focused on her pounding chest. Her thoughts were running a million miles a minute. She knew it was pretty fast, but most ponies didn't spend every waking moment together. Ever since they had arrived Pete had been there every minute of every day, or night. Dash also didn't find him all that unattractive, she'd been known to look at the other races that existed in Equestria, and while television made it clear Pete wasn't handsome she found a certain charm in his off hand nerdiness. He wasn't as physically active as she would like, but the mare was also confident she could coax him out of a house if she tried. And she wanted to, the question was how to show him that she was interested?

“So...” Rainbow started slowly, a few minutes of silence later, “I-I gotta say, after being here for a while I can sorta see what makes human guys attractive.”

Pete's entire body tensed, his knuckles slowly turning white around the wheel of the car, “Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah, like that Terminator, or Rocky, and in a goofy sorta way that Maverick guy,” Rainbow chuckled, again with nervousness, realizing she had just named three very fit, somewhat attractive men, all movie stars.

In the driver's seat, Pete deflated a bit. Of course she liked built action guys, strong, tough, fast men that would love to go out and show off how tough they were with a game of … football or something. It wasn't that Pete had a dislike of football or sports in general, he just didn't understand their point. He had fun on his own, he didn't need a dozen other people and a bunch of running around and slamming into each other to have fun. But it was clear that Rainbow would enjoy those sorts of games, or at least their Equestrian variants.

“They're pretty attractive dudes,” Pete replied, keeping his voice normal.

At the same time Rainbow was internally cursing herself, realizing that Pete now thought she was into nothing but buff action heroes. She knew that Pete would never be like that, and that was fine. She meant to imply that humans can have really positive qualities, like loyalty, and selflessness. The more Rainbow thought on that, however, the more she realized a robot and two men whose goals were completely self centered probably wasn't the best choice for that analogy. Try as she might to pick new people to compare before the ride was over the combination of her embarrassment and excitement at flying frazzled her brain. The pegasus promised herself that once she got back from her flight she would correct her mistake. A good mind clearing flight would get her brain juices flowing normally again and she would explain herself perfectly.

Almost fifteen minutes of complete silence later, Pete pulled over onto a dirt road and into a sparse forested area. He pulled into a little rest area, which was abandoned in the colder part of the year, and killed the engine. By this point Rainbow Dash was practically bouncing in her seat. The pair exited the vehicle and RD tailed behind Pete as he nosed around to make sure they were clear. He then sat on a bench and explained the rules to her. Two hours, maximum, and then they had to go back. She was to stay away from any lights in the sky or on the ground, and to fly right back to him if anything went even slightly off. Dash responded with quick nods and was soon off into the night sky.

Pete sat there and watched her as best he could, her outline zipping around quickly, doing loops and twirls in the air. Watching her fly, Pete suddenly realized two things. The first he locked deep inside of himself, as he realized, watching the rainbow maned mare fly up higher and higher, he could feel his heart soar with her. Somewhere during their unexpected visit, Pete had fallen in love with Rainbow Dash, and sometime in the near future she would be gone.

You could go with her, you know, the voice in his mind said. But that simply led Pete to the second realization.

He thought back on Celestia's words, that ponies were not as different from humans as he believed them to be. At first, he thought she meant that the ponies would wind up hurting him one day just as all his past friends had. Now he was thinking perhaps it was the other way around. Maybe, somewhere in Equestria, there was a pony that was like him, although much more adorable. A pony that had been hurt by their friends, that cursed the thought of interaction with its own species, and maybe all species. A pony that saw nothing but terrible lies on the faces of everyone they met. In thinking this, another idea formed.

The villains of Friendship is Magic never had friends. Not that Pete thought that would have helped them win, but rather what if that was the cause of their misdeeds? Celestia, by her own admission, said that Discord was once good. Maybe at some point in his past, Discord had been hurt by someone he trusted, a friend. From that action another happened, and Discord believed he saw a pattern, that others couldn't be trusted, should not be trusted. Thinking on this, Pete wondered how many others were like that. Beings of power, Luna or rather Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, Discord, Sombra, all believing the same thing, that others are only out to hurt them and that they should strike first. Then maybe that was why Celestia sent Twilight to Ponyville, to prevent her from walking their paths, as she was clearly a very powerful unicorn.

More and more Pete wondered what path he was walking then. On his planet he couldn't become some sort of super villain, but he had struck first once. He had viciously torn into humanity with the intent of scaring the first interdimensional visitors it would have. To make them feel bad simply for existing, and that was messed up.

Equestria sounded like paradise to Pete for so long, years nearly a decade, but it was dawning on him that he shouldn't go. Not like he was. He had been knocked down and eventually refused to stand up. He threw in the towel to humanity, declared from his limited experience that it was full of nothing but terrible people, and he was wrong. Of course he didn't know that, but he was pretty sure he was wrong and it wouldn't be fair to simply walk away without giving life his all. Equestria would wait, maybe forever.

As he watched Rainbow Dash zip around in the night sky, his last thoughts hurt deep inside of his heart, but he would endure. Eventually she would be a memory, as would he to her, and they would likely be better for it. They were completely different, Pete was a couch potato, and Rainbow Dash was a very clear athlete. But that was part of the charm, she was
something he wasn't and yet they had many things in common. He had always believed that people reach out for those that complete themselves. Partners that they have things in common with but are also different from each other, two sides of the same coin as it were.

After the two hours had passed, Pete grabbed a flashlight from his car and shined it up into the sky as a signal. Moments later Rainbow Dash came drifting down, her mane more messy than before and a big smile on her face. The two climbed back into the car, Rainbow getting into the back floor again, and Pete took off. Rainbow Dash had not calculated something into her earlier thoughts about correcting herself. Flying was exhausting. Within moments she was lightly dozing on the floor, and Pete was alone with his melancholic thoughts.

Getting back into the apartment was just as easy as it had been getting out, and by the time they were in it was about an hour before sunrise and both were tired. Rainbow Dash crashed on her usual spot on the floor, and Pete landed back first onto the couch. The young man laid there for only a few minutes before sleep took him, his mind and resolve settling into tackling the human world that lay outside his door. As soon as the ponies were gone he was making changes.

The next day dawned clear and chilly, but neither Pete nor Rainbow Dash would know that until the afternoon. The odd pair woke up around the same time and found the house lively around them. Pete noticed that, again, Celestia was missing, presumably at work. Luna, however, was newly added, sitting at the kitchen table with Twilight once more pouring over her spell. Pete yawned, stretched, and looked down to see Rainbow doing the same and then flashing him a smile. He chuckled and grinned back. Shortly after, RD took off for the bathroom while Pete lounged on the sofa and checked the TV.

“What happened,” the southern drawl of Applejack pulled Pete's attention to his right.

“What are you talking about?” Pete asked in response, legitimately confused about what he'd done wrong this time.

“Don't you play dumb with me. Ain't nopony here know RD like I do, and she hasn't slept that good since she's been cooped up.”

Pete's heart nearly skipped a beat. He hadn't considered this. He was an idiot for not considering this.

“Well,” he started slowly, “I don't know. We just stayed up last night and watched movies.” He put in a fake pause. “Oh, maybe it's because we watched a movie about fighter jets. It really got her going, wings flapping like mad, rocking in her seat imitating them. It might not have been like flying, but she certainly got a bit of a work out from it.”

Applejack stared at the human long and hard, until Rainbow came out of the bathroom and floated over. Once Pete explained things, a bit tensely, Rainbow Dash brushed off AJ's accusations as more paranoia and confirmed Pete's story. The farm pony was more than a little shocked, but she backed off. As she walked away, Rainbow sat down directly next to Pete, his position against the left arm of the sofa giving him no way to slide away, and she nudged his side.

“I got your back,” she whispered to him with a wink.

Pete tensed up slightly, smiled at Rainbow, and felt his face flush slightly. Suddenly he was more nervous than man holding a lit match in a room full of gunpowder. The conversation from the car ride slowly filtered through his mind, causing him to stop channel surfing on a romantic comedy. Of course to the other inhabitants of the apartment, this seemed like a conscious decision on his part and before long a few other ponies had gathered to watch. Romantic comedies being what they are, it didn't take long for Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity to understand what was going on, despite jumping into the middle of the film.

Rainbow, still at Pete's side, swallowed hard and looked sideways at him. The movie had seemed to be a conscious choice to her as well, and maybe a sign. As the movie progressed Pete thought and Rainbow Dash kept glancing at him. She tried to coax something more out of him, another signal, anything. She slid a wing across his back, nothing. A hoof on his hand, no response. Pete barely registered what was going on, everything was slowly crashing in on his mind as he churned a realization from last night. Rainbow had a crush on him. They had a crush on each other. He didn't know what to do, what the signs were, how to act. And then it hit him. He saw the screen, reality registered slowly. The climactic kissing scene in any romantic comedy.

Understanding what he'd stopped on, he turned towards Rainbow to apologize, but instead he found her looking at him. Her magenta eyes were focused on him, it dawned upon his nervous system that there was a hoof on his hand and a wing across his back, and it sent another wave of shock through is body. His mouth gaped open slightly as he tried to speak, but Rainbow spoke first, with actions.

In the midst of his near panic attack, Rainbow Dash leaned up and kissed Pete Powell square on the lips. It was like someone had dropped a flash grenade in his head, everything seemed to explode and Pete couldn't see. Sensory overload crashed any response he had, the sound of Applejack's jaw hitting the floor was almost audible, and Rarity's gasp was. Hooves and wings were suddenly wrapped around him as Rainbow tried to squeeze life into him, on her end he was completely solid, unresponsive. And that scared her.

As she broke the kiss, panting slightly, she saw Pete's face. It was frozen in pure shock, and that, to her, was not good. She started breathing hard and looked around, half of her friends were staring, probably all of them, and the princess. She had just made a fool of herself in front of the most important ponies in her life. Over a human. She looked back at Pete, who was still stunned, and she started to hover on instinct.

“Uh … I-I uh …” She had no words. She was flustered, embarrassed, scared. “I … I gotta go.”

Without any more explanation, Rainbow Dash darted to the glass doors that led outside, pulled them open, and flew off. This pulled Pete out of it. In a single motion he jumped off the couch and sprinted towards the doors, yelling after Dash. It was too late, and now the whole room was stunned into silence. The one thing they had worked to prevent had just happened.

Pete panted for a moment, his mind catching up, and then he growled in anger and punched the wall next to the door, cursing at the top of his lungs. He had always thought that when the chips were down he could be a reliable guy, that he could respond to unexpected situations and come out on top. He crashed and burned like the Hindenburg, over a kiss. That's what bothered him the most. It was a kiss, a simple romantic gesture from a pony that he felt that way about even! It wasn't Rarity or Applejack, somepony he would have second thoughts about. Rainbow Dash had been on his mind almost constantly for the past three days, in almost the exact same way he figured he had been on hers, and he blew it.

The group argued about what they should do. Pete informed Luna, who suggested they go get Celestia, that Tia the gas station attendant, couldn't just skip work when she wanted to. As far as they knew, Rainbow was still safe. Pete told them to watch the news, keep their eyes open for anything at all that would suggest otherwise. Just because Dash had flown the coop didn't mean it was time to let the ponies out. They had to play this closer to the vest than ever before. Pete, however, could do nothing. He had no idea where Rainbow would go, and he was in too much shock to do much of anything after telling Luna that Celestia couldn't ditch work. He slowly pushed himself into a corner and sat there, devastated. Even his new snarky inner voice was silent. No doubt he was even more upset at Pete's stupidity than the man himself was.

The group still found themselves trotting over to tell their host that no signs of Rainbow Dash had appeared on the news every hour, and Luna was thankful that soon Celestia would be off work. Celestia would come up with a plan, she would save the day. Pete curled himself into a tighter ball. He was useless. He was-

“Hey, girls!” Applejack shouted from the other end of the room, “I think I see her!”

There was a big shuffling as they all moved to look outside the doors. Sure enough, there was a little rainbow streak. Pete stood up and took a few steps forward, his body shaking with relief. She was safe.

“She is coming in rather low...” Luna said, stepping back slightly.

“And fast,” Twilight added, shock pouring from her tone.

The group managed to get out of the way just as Rainbow Dash exploded through the glass door like a brick. The glass sprayed everywhere, causing the other ponies to jump back, along with drops of blood. Fluttershy gasped at the sight and was the first to step forward. The yellow pegasus expected cuts, but what she found instead were oozing circular wounds that she wasn't familiar with. She screamed, quite loudly, and Pete's adrenaline kicked into high gear. He rushed forward, ignoring the glass on the floor, and dropped to his knees next to Rainbow Dash. The human recognized the wounds, shotgun pellets. Pete's sister was a vet, and she had explained to him many times the affect of shotgun spray on animals. Hunters would get drunk and accidentally shoot cows, or horses, they mistook for other game.

“Fluttershy, I need towels, now. Twilight, go whip up some kind of cold pack.” Pete's mind was moving a mile a minute. Fluttershy obeyed immediately and ran for the bathroom, Twilight for the kitchen.

“We should go find Celestia,” Luna said quickly.

“Can't you do some kind of healing magic?” Pete asked her, his mind still racing as Rainbow's breathing became more ragged.

Luna shook her head, “I am not nearly as well versed as my sister in the healing arts.”

Pete nodded as Fluttershy returned with several towels. “Go then, get Celestia back here as quick as possible,” he said, grabbing a towel and laying it over the wound before slowly applying pressure.

Luna nodded and vanished in a flash, as the pressure from Pete's palm caused Rainbow to gasp and groan in pain. Moments later Twilight came over and floated the make shift ice packs to Pete. The human carefully removed the first towel, checking the entry wounds and gnashing his teeth at the sight. Fluttershy nearly fainted and trotted away, swaying lightly. Pete grabbed another towel, laid it on the wound, then placed the ice pack on top of it before applying pressure.

“The pressure should slow the bleeding, and the ice will help close the wound. This is far from ideal though. Those pellets are still inside her, and they'll have to come out. Soon.”

Twilight nodded, familiar with basic first aid. “I might be able to buy her some more time.”

The unicorn stepped forward, her horn glowing. She touched the horn to Rainbow's flank and it was as if the pegasus gained a sudden burst of life, her breathing got better and her eyes were more alert. Pete looked at Twilight with curiosity.

“I multiplied her blood cells,” Twilight said calmly, “It should buy her a bit of time, but I can't do a whole lot at once and the more she looses the harder it will be to keep up.”

The act was clearly even harder than Twilight let on, as by the third time she was wobbling on her hooves. The bleeding had slowed, but not entirely stopped. Twilight rationalized that letting the wounds close entirely with shrapnel in them would probably be a bad thing, though Pete argued letting Rainbow Dash bleed out would be worse.

“I can keep her blood going with magic,” Twilight said back, the mare looking like she hadn't slept in two days now.

“You're about to pass out, Twilight, even I can see that,” Pete responded harshly.

“This takes a lot more magic than I was expecting. I can't just cast it, I have to focus on a microscopic level.”

“Well, if you want to keep her open you'd better find some way of getting that magic back, or else I'm gonna let these wounds close.”

Twilight sighed, “If Nurse Redheart, or any pony doctor were here that would be no problem. I could just borrow their magical energy.”

Pete sighed, “Rarity doesn't work?”

Twilight shook her head, “There's no time for a full discourse on this, but no. Magic is specific to a type, unless you're like me and your energy is undefined. My magic can become any magic, but any magic I get from Rarity is going to be specific to her talent.”

Pete bit his lip and thought. “What about me?”

Twilight looked at him, confused.

“Humans lived in Equestria, right? That means we'd have some form of magic in us. Maybe mine is useless, but maybe not. We don't know till we try.”

Twilight glanced at her bleeding friend, and then at the human trying to keep her alive. Slowly she nodded.

“Gently grab my horn,” she said with a slight blush.

Pete reached out with his right hand. A second later a glow spilled forth from Twilight's horn and onto his hand. Slowly the glow covered his whole body. It was like something deep inside of him was being pulled out. It was entirely uncomfortable, but Twilight's eyes slowly lit up as Pete felt his own lids sag. A moment later the glow stopped and the tugging at Pete's soul with it.

“Well?” he asked, his voice now tired.

Twilight nodded back, “I'm impressed. I should have more than enough now.”

Pete smiled and pressed his hand back against the towel. Rainbow Dash needed to live. She needed to know how he felt. That he was sorry, that this was his fault, that he loved her. Twilight kept casting her spell, Pete kept holding back the bleeding, and his sense of time left him. It felt like hours before Celestia arrived, the alabaster alicorn looked down at him, bags under his eyes, blood on his hands. She gently pushed him aside and took his place, removing the towel with her magic and inspecting the wound.

“You've both done very well,” the pony princess said, her voice low, “I think Rainbow will survive. Pete, I think you should go wash up. You look like you need a break. Twilight, Luna, I will need your help.”

The collective nodded, Luna and Twilight following Celestia as she moved Rainbow Dash to the couch. Pete trudged to the bathroom, his body suddenly feeling as if it were made of cement. He pushed the door shut with his back, keeping his blood soaked hands off of anything until he reached the faucet. Seeing the blood broke him. He collapsed in the shower, clothes and all, and sat under the forceful, hot, pounding drops of the shower head. The blood slowly washed off of his hands, but he could still see it on his shirt. The amount seemed to multiply in his mind, eventually he cried as he realized Rainbow couldn't bleed that much. It wasn't possible. Her small body couldn't contain that much blood. She was dead. He had just spent God knows how long trying to save a corpse.

Pete curled up into a fetal position and cried, nothing could hold his tears back. He cried until the shower turned cold, and when it did he kept weeping. He couldn't bring himself to move. The bathroom had become a Schroedinger's box. As long as he didn't leave, Rainbow couldn't be dead. Unfortunately, he eventually started to freeze. The cold water soaked into his clothes, flesh, and bones. Forced by nature, he crawled out of the tub, peeled off his clothes, and stood up. Turning the shower off and wrapping one of the few remaining towels around his waist for modesty, Pete froze at the door handle. As long as he was in here, time was frozen. Rainbow was alive.

He clenched the door knob until his knuckles turned white, and then he sighed heavily. Slowly he turned the knob and walked out into the apartment. It was quiet. Deathly quiet. The glass doors were repaired, likely by magic, the mane six were all laying in the living room, none making a sound. On the couch was Rainbow Dash. From where he stood, Pete could imagine she was sleeping. He swallowed back a lump of fear and sadness before turning to the royal sisters at the kitchen table.

Celestia gasped as Pete walked over. It was the first time she had seen him nearly naked and there was a lot to process. As expected of someone that didn't exercise and lived a static life like Pete, his frame was nearly gaunt. Exacerbating this were the scars on his body, expertly placed. Celestia guessed surgery of some kind. They were thin lines, but very noticeable on his pale skin. Pete reached the table in silence, and didn't speak for a whole minute. When he did, his voice was cracked and his crying was evident.

“Rainbow?” was all he could manage.

Celestia sighed softly, and then smiled. “She will live,” relief washed over Pete, but it was short lived. “However, she needs proper medical treatment. If she remains here for much longer … I don't know if she'll recover properly. She needs a doctor, scans, rehabilitation. If not … she might not fly again.”

Pete stepped back, “What?”

“The shrapnel his close to her wing, too close. If it doesn't heal right she might not fly again. Or at least she'll never fly as fast.”

Pete took a deep breath and nodded. Knowing that Rainbow Dash was safe, for the moment, gave his faculties a break. He walked to his room, daring only to glance at the injured and sleeping pegasus. Once inside he quickly dressed and exited. As he passed back by the living room he nudged Twilight.

“Hey, c'mere,” he said, the purple unicorn standing up and following him in response.

He sat down at the kitchen table, the three most magically inclined minds around him, and he sighed.

“Explain this mass teleport spell to me like you would a brain addled child.”

Twilight blinked in confusion, while the royal sisters looked at each other.

“You … want to know about the spell because...?” Luna let it hang.

“Because Rainbow Dash is going to be infirm if you all don't get home, soon. I'm not going to let that slide. We're going to sit here all night if we have to, and I'm going to use my feeble human intellect to poke any hole I can in this spell. So, from the very bottom, explain.”

Pete was angry, the three could see that, and he was very serious. With a weary look at each other, the three ponies began to explain the spell, and magic theory in general, to Pete. The going was slow. He grasped general concepts, but anything close to upper level and he fell flat. It was hours before he finally put his foot down and told them to just explain the spell in as close to plain English as possible. What followed was Twilight giving a detailed explanation and Pete then trying to reverse engineer it into plain words. By midnight, Pete had a break through.

“Let me get this straight. Roughly, the spell involves a certain, specific, mass to magic ratio,” Twilight nodded at Pete's explanation, “So what would happen if that ratio was off?”

“Nothing this bad. We might over shoot our landing zone, but another reality?” Twilight scoffed.

Pete tapped his chin and looked at the sisters. “What … what if you were off by a lot. Like, the untapped potential to move the solar system?”

Twilight tilted her head, “Celestia and Luna didn't have any kind of magic involved.” She looked at them, frowning, “Did you?”

The pair shook their heads, but Pete disagreed.

“The manes,” he said plainly, “Oh, my gods, the manes!” The group jumped slightly as Pete sprung out of his chair. “You two are so used to it you completely forgot about it! Your manes are literally flowing with magic! Twilight's spell was fueled by her untapped potential, plus you two's!”

The royal sisters looked at each other and then simultaneously facehoofed. Pete was right. Magic naturally flowed from them, in order to achieve the balance that Twilight needed they would have to suppress their own powers.

“Which means returning home is as simple as unleashing our full capabilities,” Celestia surmised.

Luna nodded, “But, since this world lacks natural magic we'll have to wait weeks without using any to fully recharge after today.”

“Maybe not,” Twilight interjected, “Today, when I needed magic, I pulled some from Pete. He's got a whole untapped well of it inside of him, and it's potent. I think that because humans were once from our world they each carry a small amount of magic, and because they lack cutie marks to direct that magic it's completely unformed.”

Celestia tapped a hoof to her chin, “So, if we flood Pete with our magic we can transform any energy we have that isn't related to spacial relocation into undefined magic and use it as we want.”

Luna looked at Pete, “This would put a great deal of strain on you, but it should work. In theory at least.”

Pete just nodded, “Anything I can do to help. As long as you all get home safely and Dash gets the treatment she needs.”

“Go and rest then, Pete Powell,” Celestia said formally, “Tomorrow we will need your help more than ever.”

Pete nodded and slowly retreated to his room. He had no trouble falling asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. The stress of the day along with Twilight draining his apparent store of magic energy had left the human completely exhausted. His sleep was dreamless and empty as the void itself.

The night passed with no real issues, and Pete was up surprisingly early the next day. Exiting his room he found the mane six, Rainbow Dash included, awake and readying themselves. Rainbow was looking some what better, her color was coming back, and Pete desperately wanted to speak with her. However, Luna caught him first, and told him that Celestia was waiting to speak with him on the roof. He debated, internally, for a moment about ignoring the summons of the pony princess, but in the end he decided against that. With a sigh, he turned around and walked out onto the roof.

Celestia was not waiting on the top block today, but rather just outside. The morning was cool and Pete shivered slightly as he walked out to meet her. The Princess of the Sun was looking very stoic, her gaze cast long out onto the gray city. Her mane was flowing with the breeze, and the sunlight certainly made her look worthy of her title as the Princess of the Sun. She looked over at Pete as he approached.

“Are you ready?” she asked simply.

“Almost. I have one last conversation to have,” Pete replied, not willing to let Rainbow leave without talking to her first.

Celestia nodded and looked back to the city. “Rainbow Dash told us what happened. Where she went.”

Pete leaned to one side. “Oh?”

“Apparently she was led to believe there was a small resting area in a fairly wooded forest just out side of the city that was safe.”

Pete almost threw up, and Celestia took note of his reaction.

“You took her out, in spite of your own warnings. You risked all of us just so she could fly for a few hours, and look at where it led.”

“I know,” Pete replied, “It's my fault, and I accept that. She got hurt because I'm an idiot, in more ways than one. But it'll be okay.” The human turned his back to the rising sun and the princess. “I've decided to decline your offer, if I believed it still stood. I've realized that I need to face my life here, not just run away like a coward to some alternate dimension. … I'll be ready as soon as I finish talking with Dash, then you all can leave.”

Pete walked off without so much as a glance behind him. Celestia, however, turned and followed his path back into the apartment. When the door was shut she turned back to the sun and sighed.

“You also show proper remorse for your actions, shown swift thinking in the face of danger, saved her life, and though taking her outside was foolish your intentions were pure.” Celestia sighed to the air, “Is this why you can't see the good in yourself and others? Do you just walk away before anyone can explain anything more?”

Inside, Pete walked over to Rainbow Dash and gently touched her shoulder. The pegasus gave him a weak smile. She may have been doing better, but she was almost dead yesterday, and that was evident. Pete almost thought about just apologizing, but that didn't seem like enough. Instead he asked how she was doing and if she was good to move into his room for a private moment before the ponies left. Luna gave her the okay, and the two moved to Pete's room. Once the door was shut, Pete dropped down onto his bed and sighed heavily.

“This is my fault,” he began, and held up a finger to cut Dash's response off, “In more ways than one. I should have properly explained to you that that rest area was not safe. It was maybe okay because I was around, but those woods … people hunt there. You're lucky to have made it back, and it's my fault that you got hurt.”

Pete stood up, again holding up a hand to silence Rainbow's rebuttal, and crossed the room to the injured mare. He crouched down so they were eye level and continued.

“This was also my fault because of how I acted when you … when you kissed me.”

Pete pushed his words aside, carefully placed his hand behind Rainbow's head, and pulled her into a soft kiss. This time it was RD that was shocked, but unlike Pete she recovered quickly and kissed back. The kiss was not hot and heavy, it was barely even sexual. It was a return of the kiss that Pete should have done the day before. It was a first date sort of kiss, and that was fine. The two pulled apart shortly after and then hugged.

“It's not a lot, but thanks for helping us get home,” Rainbow Dash whispered to Pete.

Pete chuckled, “It's actually rather selfish of me. I couldn't bear it if you died, so I've got to get you home to a proper doctor.”

Rainbow chuckled back and the two slowly pulled apart again. Giving her a nod, Pete stood up and opened the bedroom door. Exiting back into the main room they found everypony gathered in the middle of the room. The bedding was put away, Twilight had her notes gathered up, and everypony was just waiting. As Dash walked over to the group Applejack broke away and intercepted Pete.

“Listen,” she said in a low tone to him, “I know what happened, Dash explained it. And, I know she got hurt from all of that, and that makes me all kinds of mad … but, you saved her life. Even if you sorta put her there to begin with if you hadn't been here she woulda … well, you know.”

Pete smiled, “Are you saying we're all right?”

AJ snorted, “Yeah, we're alright. You're a bit of a creep, but in the end you weren't as bad as I thought.”

“I'll take it. Now, come on. Let's get you all home.”

The farm pony smiled, “Now you're talkin'!”

At last the time had come. Pete stood with a royal alicorn at each side and Twilight in front of him. The plan was simple, Pete would grab Celestia and Luna's horns. They would flood him with all of their magic energies, and then Twilight would draw all of them out of Pete. Hopefully, the incredible amount of power the three held being fired at the same location would open a portal between the two realities.

Pete reached up and gently took hold of the two alicorn horns. Again a soft glow, blue from Luna and gold from Celestia, crept up his arms, but this time he felt energized. It was like having caffeine injected straight into your brain, or adrenaline to the heart. He felt awake, alive, powerful. Everything seemed brighter, more vibrant, alive. Soon after the glowing stopped and the sisters stepped away, spent. Then came the reversal. Twilight touched her horn to Pete's stomach and it was as if everything suddenly went monochrome. The vibrancy faded, the energy died. Pete felt cold all over, and tired, so very tired. It was like he'd been up for a week straight, and by the time Twilight had pulled everything out Pete was on his knees.

The purple unicorn stepped back, looking worried, but she had other things to think about. She turned around and aimed her horn at the nothing in front of her. Twilight's whole body started to glow, brighter and brighter until a beam of energy erupted from her horn. The light grew so bright everyone had to close their eyes, but when it faded the portal was there. It was just outside Canterlot, the mountain city was visible a short ways in the distance. Pete could see it as real as anything, the grass, the insects, the gate just up the road that led to the city proper. He smiled.

One by one the ponies crossed over, each excited to see their home again. Finally, they turned back to their host for one last good bye. Pete was smiling, the mares were smiling. And then he fell. The smile still on his face, Pete toppled forward. He landed face down on his carpet, and terror echoed through the group. Celestia suddenly realizing what had happened. Pete's heart condition. The stress had been too much, the magical build up and drain had stopped his heart.

“When was the last time he had is medication?” Rainbow Dash shouted, suddenly alerting everypony to what had just transpired.

The portal was closing, there was no time to deliberate. Celestia reached inside herself for the last ounce of her magic. Reaching through the veil, the princess took hold of Pete, raising him off the ground, and pulling him through before the portal closed. Pulling on her last bit of strength, Celestia began magic induced CPR.

“Luna, to the city!” Celestia ordered, “We need medical ponies, now!”

Luna was already off, her wings beating as she took off into the air towards the city as fast as she could. Like it or not, Pete was now in Equestria, but if she wasn't quick he wouldn't be for long.

Alternate Ending

It was a bad idea, but she was doing it anyway. She had been shot less than a day ago and her wing still ached, but she saw it. She saw the glaze as it filled his vision almost instantly, every muscle in his body suddenly go slack, and knew his collapse would follow soon after. It was possible he would die. It was even possible that he would die no matter what she did, but she was the last to come through, the last to say good bye. The closest to the portal. Her friends called out to her as she began to move, but their cries fell on deaf ears. Time was short, the portal was closing, but she made it, however barely. For better, or for worse, Rainbow Dash had leapt back into the human world and now stood above an unconscious Pete Powell. For a moment her heart was racing faster than ever before, this was a huge decision, and possibly irreversible. Her attention quickly turned back to her comatose crush after the initial adrenaline rush.

“Okay, whoa. Maybe should have thought this through a bit,” she chuckled nervously, “How am I even supposed to take care of you? ...okay, that doesn't matter. You helped us, so now it's my turn to help you. I guess maybe getting you off the floor wouldn't be a bad idea.”

With extreme difficulty, thanks to her currently useless wings, Rainbow Dash managed to get Pete onto the nearby couch. Feeling slight pain in her recent wounds, and having no idea of what to do next, the pegasus laid down on the floor next to the couch. His faint breathing told her that he was alive, but it was possible he would never wake up. She knew why he had done it, but the idea of her and her friends getting to go back to their lives at the cost of another's didn't sit well with the Element of Loyalty.

As she closed her eyes and tried to sleep, these thoughts and more filled the pony's mind. She may never get home, she may never fly again. She might never see her friends again. This thought, above all others, brought tears to the young mare's eyes. Her decision had left her torn, and alone. The only thing she could really do now was wait, and pray to a goddess that was in another dimension.

Two Days Later

It was night, Pete was sure of it, the news just signed off to the after hours programming. Then it hit him. Why was the television on? Reaching deep inside himself, Pete tensed every muscle in his body silently, prepared his eyes to be opened without his glasses, and sat upright as fast as possible. Squinting into the dark, since he lacked eye aid, he saw nothing. Not a single person was in the room. Calming down, he climbed off the couch and went into the kitchen to get something to drink, his throat exceedingly dry. If the news was right he had been out for three days now, which explained his protesting muscles. Filling a large glass, more things began to strike Pete as strange. Why had he woken up on the couch, when he distinctly remembered passing out on the floor? Also, there were fresh dishes in the sink, as if someone else was living here.

“Pete!” a too familiar voice gasped from behind him.

Setting his, now empty, glass down, Pete turned, and in the dim light, saw a light blue blob.

“DASH?! What are you doing here?!”

“I-I jumped back through the portal when you collapsed. You helped us so much ever since we shown up, and you didn't have to. It wasn't right for us to let you sacrifice yourself just so we could go home.”

“Dash, I did that so you could get medical attention. Help you can't get here! What if you've got a serious problem, and you're dying? Or what if your wing never works again?”

Dash looked at the floor, “I know. I've been thinking about that for the past two days. It's all my fault though, if I hadn't ran out I wouldn't have gotten hurt, and you wouldn't have done this.”

Pete lowered his voice, “That may be so, but it was still my decision, my choice. I don't like this place Dash. I really don't. You girls shown me that maybe I haven't tried as hard as I could have, but that doesn't mean there aren't things I NEVER wanted any of you to see. Some of those things you all found on your own, and it was a huge culture shock, but there's a lot more. I wanted you all to go home as soon as possible to spare you from those things.”

“We aren't as soft as you think we are!” Rainbow Dash stomped her forehoof, “There were wars, and all this stuff that your cartoon didn't have! We-”

“I know,” Pete cut her off, “I've talked with Celestia enough, but a lot of those things are done with in your world. They still happen everyday here, and there's NOTHING the general population can do about them. Somethings it's illegal for us to do, even if it would help everyone, and others we're just not capable of doing without training. I'm not saying you're weak, I'm just saying that being here is a much bigger adjustment than you think.” Pete sighed, and rubbed his temples, he was filled with a torrent of emotions. Annoyingly highest among them was elation, “Well, at least it'll be easier to hide one pony that it was eight.”

The rainbow maned pegasus gave a weak smile, “It'll feel less crowded at least. This place DEFINITELY wasn't meant to hold more than a couple of people, let alone eight ponies.”

“Get some sleep Dash, I've gotta get cleaned up and back to editing some stuff before they fire me.”

Rainbow wanted to protest, but thought better of it. Now that Pete was awake, however, her mind turned back to the very real consequences of her actions. She had no way back to Equestria, and was living in a world populated with creatures that might try to harm her, in the middle of a city filled with said creatures. Suddenly, she realized how horrible her asking Pete to come to Equestria was. It was a terrible feeling knowing that you've been cut off from everything you know. But she was brave, she would do her best to adapt. This had been HER choice.

After stepping out of the shower, and making sure Rainbow was actually asleep on the couch, Pete grabbed his cell phone from his night stand and make a massive judgment call. The line rang once, twice, thrice, four times before being picked up, a surprisingly short record.

“I'm working, dick,” the voice of Clarissa, his sister, sounded on the other end.

“Oh, so hype,” he replied sarcastically, “You still a vet?”

“Didn't go into debt to bag groceries.”

“So, when's your next day off?”

“What's with the questions?”

“I think you might need to make a trip to see your big brother, and maybe bring some veterinary tools with you.”

“I'm not a carpenter, I don't have a toolbox filled with shit that I can just lug around.”

“I've got something with an injured wing, been shot. The pellets I pulled out were small, and I'm not even sure if I got them all. I'm worried she might not fly again.”

There was a long silence on the other end before, “And you can't take her to a vet near you because...?”

“You have to see it to believe it, and even then you'll accuse me of putting LSD in whatever you just had. Even if I was nowhere near when you had it.”

“...You're paying for the plane.”

“I figured. You book a flight and I'll hand you cash when you get in.”

“Well how else would you pay for it, bro? You refuse to get a credit card like some kind of conspiracy theorist,” Clarissa mocked.

“Oh trust me, you'll lose your mind when you get here.”

“Fine, I can close up for the weekend, be in Saturday afternoon. Make sure you have that meat locker you live in warmed up, I don't want to be cold when I get there.”

“You live in New York, and it's the end of fucking August. I'm betting you're wrapped up in a blanket in front of a heater, even though you're at the office.”

“And you've got those stupid doors wide open letting snow fly into your apartment, and you probably aren't wearing pants because of how hot you think it is!”

“See you Saturday poser,” Pete said, chuckling.

The sibling's relationship had always been a bit strange. Civility was possible, usually when in public, but in private the two would sling insults bad enough that their parents often had had difficulties telling when they were fighting and when they were messing around. She would be there, no way she wouldn't. Still, two days was a long time more to wait to see if Dash would be okay.

Trying his best to shake the melancholy from his mind Pete tossed his phone on the bed and grabbed his laptop. It had been two days since he last did any work, and folks were sure to have noticed. Exactly as expected, almost all of his correspondents were upset, save a couple that were, or seemed, concerned about his sudden disappearance. He set about sending out apology emails, give a vague explanation about being hospitalized and completely incapable of even taking care of himself suddenly, and without warning, hence his lack of warning to them. He also wrapped up a couple of his long term editing jobs, his general time scale being a few short term edits with two, three to four day jobs mixed in so he didn't get overwhelmed.

“At least they won't be completely pissed,” Pete muttered to himself, in the dark.

With a sigh, Pete closed his laptop and made his way back to the kitchen. As he passed through the living area he saw Dash curled up on the couch asleep. Knowing that Celestia planed to bring humans to Equestria, he began to wonder how long she would really be here. No longer than it would take Celestia to master the spell surely, at least a few days, at most a week. His inner voice had told him to enjoy the moment, but it was hard when such things loomed so close on the horizon. Pete contemplated heavily, for a while, sitting on the couch with Rainbow Dash, perhaps even finding someway for them to both lay there. As close to each other as possible. Ultimately he decided not to disturb her, she was still the more injured of the two by far, and needed all the rest she could get.

Utilizing every ounce of control he had, Pete forced himself into the kitchen and had some of Pinkie's leftover sweets. Before realizing that someone needed to shut down the, now absent, party pony's online bakery, and dashing back across the apartment for his computer. With that dealt with, Pete sat at the kitchen table picking at a piece of cake in silence as he tried to remember what other issues may need handled in the absence of the ponies. Twilight's books and the remainder of Pinkie Pie's baking stuffs were all he could come up with, though he was sure more would surprise him later. Around this time, Pete being amazed at the late hour of the morning, Dash trotted slowly into the dining area and pulled up her own seat.

After asking how the pegasus was doing, an aching, stiff wing being all, and letting her wake up a little, Pete steeled himself and told Dash about his plan to have his sister check her out. Rather than being cautious or worried, Dash was exceptionally complacent about the idea. As he asked her about his perceived strangeness of her reaction, Pete realized something. Rainbow Dash trusted him implicitly, and without hesitation. A new burden on his conscious.

The two days that followed were nerve wracking and almost painful. Despite the two being together, and alone for the first time ever, the various ways everything could go wrong still hoovered over head. On top of those worries, both were insecure and first timers in a serious relationship. This was made worse by the fact that said relationship was with another species altogether. There was a mutual, unstated agreement between the two, however, that this was only temporary anxiety caused by the imminent arrival of Clarissa, and the possibility of life changing news she would herald.

Saturday Afternoon

The two on the couch practically leapt into the air when the knock came from the door. Pete had been in contact with his sister since she landed, and they both knew she was near. Fear, however, was a very powerful and often uncontrollable emotion.

Shakily, Pete nodded to Rainbow, who hopped off the couch and stepped over to the TV, as the slim human walked over and opened the door. Clarissa wasted no time simply pushing past her older brother and tossing her stuff on the ground. The young woman was roughly a foot shorter than Pete, with short, light brown hair and glasses. Dressed in everyday wear of black jeans, a blue hoodie, sneakers, and a plain t-shirt she looked less like a vet and more like a college student.

“Alright, first up where's this bird that's so special you can't leave your house,” she stated, opening a bag and double checking the contents.

“Well, that's the thing,” Pete said, locking the door as he shut it, “She's right over there.”

Clarissa followed her brother's extended finger all the way to the cyan impossibility that stood in the middle of the room. The vet took a second, placed her head in her palm, scrunched her face a bit, then looked again.

“Oh, that can't be real.”

Rainbow Dash took a step forward, “H-hi,” she started, nervousness oozing from her core. Not only over being introduced to her first human that wasn't Pete, but also because this was the only family member he had never bad mouthed. The only one he seemed to show respect to. She was, essentially, meeting the family.

“Oh, fucking hell, it talked. You're right, how much LSD am I on right now?” Clarissa asked, looking up at her brother.

“More than you should be, but less than you'd expect,” he replied with a smile.

Dash was confused until Clarissa said, “So, those midnight texts about Twilight Sparkle weren't just drunken bullshit were they? Where's the others?”

“They went home. Dash was supposed to go with them to get that wing looked at, but … well some stuff happened and she made the decision to jump back through. I'm pretty okay with it, except for the part where she might still be in need of critical care. So I called you.”

There was a long pause as Clarissa, still crouched on the ground, thought.

“Alright, get up on the couch Rainbow Dash. I'll see what I can do.”

The blue pegasus complied, and stood on the cushions with her injured side facing out. Clarissa brought over her bag and began to undo the bandages.

“How long ago did this happen?”

“Almost a week,” Dash responded, still nervous.

“...Wow, I'm not used to patients talking back. Okay, well then, how does it feel right now?”

“It's a little sore.”

“Have you stretched it any?”

“Just a bit, nothing too big.”

Clarissa grunted as she saw the wound, and Pete sucked air audibly through his teeth when he saw it.

“What?” Dash exclaimed, panic welling up in her chest.

“Even for a magical pony I guess a gunshot wouldn't heal without scarring, but it's only been a week. This is still fresh. I think it'll look better after it's healed more, but I don't think it'll be invisible.”

It didn't look horrible, most of the smaller wounds had even started to regrow fur. But there was a bald patch a bit under where the wing connected that was, at the moment, a very angry red. Most likely a soon to be scar.

Pete clenched his fist, “Dammit.”

“I guess not having magic is a bit worse than I thought,” Dash mumbled, “On the other hoof, since I'm stuck here, you two are the only ones who'll ever see me.”

Next, Clarissa reached down and pulled a metal detecting wand out.

“Whoa, why the hell do you have one of those?” Pete said, genuinely stunned.

“Remember when I did that little stint with airport security?”

“No,” he replied flatly.

Pete's sister shot him a look, “I spent six months being gone all night, and coming home early in the morning. We were basically on the same schedule, in the same house, for half a year.”

“I'm really oblivious?”

“Obviously,” she rolled her eyes, “The point is, even if it lacks finesse, I should still be able to tell if there's any shot still inside her. If not, she'll be in the clear. Alternatively... well I really don't want to operate on the kitchen table.”

The wand didn't go off and the group settled a bit. The rest was mostly a routine check up. Clarissa felt around the wound gently, and concluded that other than the already stated scars nothing would be wrong. Apparently, Dash's altitude had been enough to keep most of the wounds shallow, and was mostly hit in the side below the wing. A few more days of recovery and she would be fine. Hopefully.

“I'm not a Cryptozooligist, so I have very little idea about how a pegasus wing works. But, if it's anything close to a bird wing, she should be alright. It might ache from time to time, but nothing huge,” the short haired woman said, almost twenty minutes later as she threw herself on the couch.

“I'm just relieved to know there's no bullet spray left in her,” Pete said, sitting cross legged on the floor, “The rest can be dealt with as it comes.”

“Yeah, about her,” Clarissa looked towards the bathroom where Rainbow Dash was currently cleaning her wound for the first time. Feeling secure that the pegasus was in the shower, the younger Powell looked at her brother, “How do you really feel?”

“What are talking about?”

Clarissa rolled her eyes and sat up, “You can TRY and bullshit me if you want, but I've seen you before in this kinda situation. You're not just at the part where you think you like a girl, you're completely over the deep end in love. It's not the first time I've seen you like this, but I'm wondering if it will be the last. ...You can't run away from her like you did the others, even with a fantastic excuse you're still responsible for her.”

“...I don't want to be done with her. I can't imagine how different things would be right now if I hadn't been such a moron a week ago. I know it sounds crazy, and down right weird, but I could actually see living with Dash forever. I'm not saying we're perfect or any of that usual BS, we need a lot of work, me especially.”

“...you know she can't stay in the city. Ignoring how unhealthy it is for people to live here, she's an active …pony, not one for sitting in doors for the rest of her life.”

“I know,” Pete sighed, “I have a plan, it's going to take a little time though. All I can do is hope that things don't go downhill before then.”

“...Well, I honestly can't think of a better guy for the job. You are the most stubborn guy I know, but you're also weirdly blunt and honest. Remember that time I broke up with a guy and was all depressed and shit, and you told me that it wasn't a big deal and that life just got harder after high school? As big as an ass that makes you, it's also the same kind of down to Earth thought process that can really make a relationship.” Clarissa laid back on the couch, hands behind her head, “Anyway, this serious talk stuff is YOUR department, not mine.”

“Yeah, I appreciate the attempt though.”

The rest of the day, and night, followed smoothly. After rebandaging Dash, the pegasus and vet got along like wildfire. Of course both of them being easily excitable tomboys helped out tremendously. By the next day Dash was a little sad to see her new friend go, but the prospect of things getting along better with her current love interest held her back from any hasty ideas.

Over time the two love birds did become closer, things never got easier, but they did soften a bit. Eventually, Rainbow Dash found an interest in human fantasy novels, courtesy of Pete's book stash, and the two would spend hours talking about their favorites of the bunch. Though there was always a glint in her eyes whenever she looked out the doors at the sky, and it wasn't a look that Pete could ignore.

Six Months Later

Pete pulled the Sedan up what felt like the worlds longest driveway, and stopped in front of a two story house in the middle of a field. Throwing the vehicle into park, he killed the ignition, yanked the keys out, and opened the driver door. He stretched for just a moment before leaning over and opening the rear driver side door, letting an even more sore Rainbow Dash wiggle out of the back floorboard.

“Sweet Celestia, that felt like FOREVER!” the cyan pegasus exclaimed, stretching out even more thoroughly than the human had.

“Yeah, well it's all worth it,” Pete said, as he circled the car and popped the trunk.

“Okay, so I get that we're moving, but what's the big deal here? It's not like I can just be outside whenever I want, even if we are a ways away from any other people.”

Pete pulled some boxes out of the trunk and sat them on the ground, “Dash... not only did I buy this place, but I bought everything around it too. It's something like two miles. I've got some guys coming by in a few days to put up a fence all around it, and I'm going to let it be known that I don't want anyone hunting in, or over, my property. The closest neighbors we've got are ten miles out either direction, and I hear that hunting is really weak in these parts anyway because there's no natural water source anywhere nearby.”

The pegasus' eyes widened at each new remark, “Wait, what are you saying?”

“I'm saying, I'm still going to want to be there to keep an eye on you, but I don't think there's any reason we can't be outside here. I wish there were more trees around, but I guess being able to see cars, and people, coming from a mile away is a good thing.”

The couple moved the boxes into their new home, and Pete went over the general plan for the next few weeks. It would be more of having to hide Dash, with guys coming to move stuff in, check the electricity, set up internet so Pete still had a job, building that fence, but after all that was done the two would be alone.

“Where did you get the money for this?” Dash asked, the two snuggled together under a blanket on the front porch later that night.

“You remember that book I wrote?”

“The one I read on your computer?”

“Yep, I got it published. It did really well, the publisher asked me for more, and I had the second book already made up. They asked me about making it a trilogy, and I told them I already had book three written too. I bought this with just the initial rights of the books, the royalties will cover more, and, should I indulge my hubris for a moment, if the chance presents itself, I could sell the right for a film.”

“...You're talking about becoming a sell out, you know that right?”

Pete chuckled, “Yes, you should have seen the edits I allowed to my manuscript for the books. Technically, I've already sold out, and I don't care. I needed to get you out of that city, and I needed money to do that.” Pete looked away from the sky and down at the mare in his arms, “I would have sold my kidney on the black market to do this. I wasn't kidding when I said that I would do anything for you, love.

“The books have always been about making money, but the money doesn't mean a thing if you don't have something to spend it on. Most girls would ask for fancy jewels, or a mansion. That's not what you want though, I know it. You wanted to fly free again, and I can't get you back home to that. What I can do, however, is my damnedest to let you in the sky. You can't do that in city, and elsewhere there's too much threat of you being mistaken for a bird again. So, I'll spend every last dime I can get my hands on to keep you safe, and happy, even if the two means contradict each other.”

“Have I ever told you how much I love you,” Rainbow Dash asked, pulling herself closer to Pete, who simply nodded in response. “Well, let me tell you again. I love you more than anything, and anyone, and not a day goes by that I regret ever thinking about going back to Equestria without you.”

Five Years Later

“Are you sure this is the place Princess?”

“Luna and I are sure Twilight. We've spent months searching for them. We are not wrong.”

“It ain't like you to doubt the Princesses, Twi.”

“I know Applejack, but look at this place! It's a house, not an apartment, and we're not in a city! Why would Pete move?”

“Because it's been five years for us Twilight,” a voice called from the darkness. Immediately four different horns lit up the room, illuminating the Elements of Harmony, their princesses, and the couple on the couch.

“Five years? That's impossible, it's only been four months,” the purple unicorn exclaimed.

“Five, actually, as of today,” Luna corrected, “I suppose that's close to how the time flows between our worlds, though it doesn't really add up.”

“So, you've been here for five years?” Fluttershy asked, looking cautiously out the window.

“Yeah, moved here about six months after you girls left. Took a lot of money, but I bought up a huge amount of land, fenced it in, and told everyone to stay away from it if they mean to hunt.”

“All for Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said, a catch in her throat.

Pete nodded, and ran his hand through the mane of said pegasus, still asleep on his chest. The others looked over their old friends. Rainbow was the same as ever, Pete on the other hand had changed tremendously. Before he had been pale, and skinny, now he was more lean with obvious muscle, and slightly tanned. His hair was longer, below his shoulders, and uncombed, but obviously clean. It seemed that living with the athletic pegasus had motivated the young man.

With a contented sigh he leaned towards his sleeping love and began whispering in her ear. For a moment she grumbled, and tossed, but then his words sunk into her consciousness and she looked around. Quickly waking up, Rainbow darted around the room, flicking on the lights and revealing the surroundings in full. The living room was slightly smaller than the designated area from the apartment, but the overall house was much bigger. There was little time for such small details, however, as the six friends began catching up immediately. During this time two things became apparent. First was Rainbow's scar, the others were sympathetic, but told her that it wasn't anything that couldn't be handled with magic in moments. The second thing was only noticed by Celestia, but brought quickly to the groups attention as the bigger problem.

“Pete,” she asked softly, looking over the human, “Why don't you open your eyes?”

Pete continued to smile at her, “What good would that do?”

“What do you mean?” Luna asked, stepping to her sister's side.

“...Pete's blind,” Dash explained, quietly, “It happened about two years ago. I was kinda suspicious of him, so I moved a few things. He had been walking around like normal for a while, but he hadn't seen anything for weeks.”

Celestia looked at Pete, “Didn't you see a physician?”

Pete nodded, still smiling, “Of course, he told me the same thing I learned a long time ago. It's hereditary, most of my family went blind, or very close to it, in old age. Usually around their forties, I'm pretty close.”

“You're thirty two!” Dash shouted.

“Close,” Pete waved her off with a hand.

“May I see?” Celestia asked, stepping closer.

Pete nodded, and opened his eyes. Celestia sighed, she had seen this before. He wasn't entirely blind yet, he could see blobs of motion, but his vision would be a cone now, and he probably couldn't make out even the brightest of colors. Within the next couple of years that would fade entirely. It could be reversed magically, but for how long was subject. As Pete closed his eyes once again, Celestia stepped back.

“Oh, Pete,” she mourned.

“It's fine, I'm much less distracted now. I can't believe how in the way things were when I could see. Though I do miss reading sometimes.”

Rainbow trotted over to her lover, “I don't know how you can be so calm about this.”

Pete reached out and ran a hand down her side, “I've known it would happen for a long time, I've just accepted it.”

“I must admit,” Luna interrupted, “You seem much more calm in general now.”

“I've had time to look back on where I was, and who I was. I was a terrible person, I accept that, and I've spent every day since trying to be better. Enjoying the moments I have.”

“Pete” Applejack said, stepping forward, “You know we're here to take Rainbow back to Equestria, right?”

“Yes, I know. She can't stay here, I'm lucky she got to stay as long as she did. She needs to go back the ones that need her most.”

Dash pulled away and started floating, “I'll go pack our things. Better not to leave that to the blind guy.”

“What do you mean 'our?'” Luna asked.

“Pete's coming too, and don't tell me otherwise! I know Celestia was planning on bringing humans into Equestria, we could have brought him with us, even if it was just to make sure he didn't DIE. We could have sent him back easily!”

The princesses considered that for a moment, indeed the whole situation could have been solved that easily, and maybe more.

“Rainbow, there's something you don't know,” Twilight said, hanging her head.

“The humans we brought over became violent,” Celestia said, and Pete, for the first time since the reunion frowned. “At first they were merely distrustful, and refused to see our ambassadors. Over the space of a month they became angry, and lashed out at the nearest settlement. Ponyville.”

Rainbow Dash gasped.

“No pony was hurt,” Celestia continued, “the humans didn't know about magic, and the unicorns in town disabled them harmlessly. The action caused a rage amongst the citizens, however. There were talks for a time of deposing me for putting them in such a horrible situation. ...I promised I wouldn't allow another human into Equestria.”

Dash landed, “I'm not leaving without him,” she stated flatly.

“You do not have a choice, Rainbow Dash,” Luna began, her tone dark.

Pete threw the blanket off himself and rose, his fists clenched, “I don't think you want to finish that Luna,” he growled, causing both princesses to back up.

“Pete, be reasonable,” Celestia started slowly.

“I am,” he relaxed his stance and waved the primary ruler into another room, once they were alone he faced her with his half blind eyes open. “That spell,” he whispered, “The one you used to be a human. Could you cast that on anther being, in reverse?”

Celestia exhaled, “What are you saying?”

“They won't accept a human, but what if I were a pony?”

“The spell I used was much more simple than what you're asking, and what you want would cause you more pain than you've ever felt. You're very being will be contorted into the shape of a pony. It will be, and after a time feel, natural, but the process is still painful. Your very existence will have to change.”

“And the same will happen if I never see Rainbow again. One of those is temporary.”

“You're sure about this? There won't be any coming back.”

“I can think of a bunch of reasons to stay, but the one reason to go is the most powerful reason of all. You couldn't keep me away if you tried.”

“...then let's go rejoin the others. I will need Luna's help for this.”

The two returned to the room to find an argument brewing, Celestia quickly cut that off with her announcement. There was a slight shock among the group, and a new batch of opinions were formed, all of which were swept away by Celestia.

“He has made this decision, and I have agreed. The only other I need for this is Luna. I understand what you are all thinking, I assure you, but Pete and Rainbow Dash will not let this stand. Pete has offered the most amicable solution, and I agree.”

Luna looked her sister in the eyes, “You're not nearly as sure as you want to be.”

“No, but I'm as sure as I need to be.”

“...Very well, let us begin.”

The Elements of Harmony sat in a forced silence as the alicorns prepared the spell. Following its release, they were all greeted with the most terrifying sounds they had ever heard. Pete howled in agony as his bones, skin, organs, and mind began changing. The cacophony of disgusting sounds caused Rarity and Fluttershy to faint before the process was even half over. By the mid way point Pete was no longer screaming, his vocal cords too strained to continue, and Applejack and Pinkie Pie were no longer watching. Only Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and the Princesses watched till the end. One for science, two to make sure nothing went wrong, and one for love.

When the process was complete a pony was deposited on the floor, panting and moaning in pain. Celestia checked him over with magic, while Luna tended to the others. When all were deemed well, the girls gathered over their friend's new form.

“A unicorn!” Twilight remarked with surprise.

“Indeed,” Luna commented, “Perhaps we were lucky that we landed in his apartment. It just might be that the magical energies we obtained were specific to him, and him alone.”

“Well, his coat is a rather majestic shade of blue, but that mane! Ew, hideous! Why is it tan?!”

“It ain't tan, Rarity, it's kinda light brown. Like a caramel color.”

“That would be tan, Applejack, or very close to it. Either way, it clashes horribly.”

“Is he... alive?”

“Of course he's alive, Rainbow Dash. I wouldn't let him die, but we should get him out of here now. Luna, could you open the portal?”

“Yes.”

Celestia lifted Pete's new body in her magic and set him on her back. Without a second thought, the group walked through the portal to Equestria. Celestia took Pete to the infirmary, with Rainbow in tow, as the others returned to their rooms. It would be two days before Pete woke up, and even longer before he would get the hang of his new body, but there were things awaiting him that he could never have dreamed of. A life of adventure, and discovery, would finally be his.

Author's Note

An idea that came to me, and forced itself into the center of my mind until I finished it. I've been debating uploading it or not for a while now. I SWEAR I'm done with this fic now. No more, no matter how great an idea I think I have. Sorry to have disturbed those that thought the ride over with. I promise it is now.

Alternate take: What if somepony else had arrived?

Author's Note

I was thinking of adding this in as a bonus chapter once I finished the rewrite, but I'm too impatient and I've kept you all waiting for way too long with this (still on going) rewrite. So here's something. Alternate title: Ruby

Alternate take: What if somepony else had arrived?

Canterlot, Midnight

The whole scene was a blur to her now. She remembered being spotted by somepony, their scream echoing out into the night, and the sound of hooves and wings above her. It was the chase afterwards that still eluded her. Despite enhanced senses on all fronts it was still a jumbled mess of running, prying off her dress to free her wings, looking for any opening to hide or take flight, but they were always above her. Disadvantaged, and hungry, the chase was shorter than it could have been. Had she gotten her meal before the pedestrian had screamed she could have overtaken them, but she was weak from hunger.

There was no trial for her, no one to hear her story. Nor would they care if she could tell them. She was dragged before the princesses, smirking softly at the idea of Celestia herself having to be woken up just for the likes of her. The two alicorns handled her roughly with their magic, inspecting her wings, teeth, and eyes before holding her in place.

“All of the signs are there, sister,” Luna said, not bothering to hide her tone from their captive.

“Yes,” Celestia said shortly with a nod, “How long has it been since the last one?”

“The records you have kept say nearly one hundred years.”

Celestia pondered for a moment on that. “And there was a much smaller time period before that.” The white alicorn turned to her prisoner. “Have we finally come close to exterminating your line, or have you simply gotten better at hiding?”

She said nothing in response, but Celestia didn't need words. The beast's red eyes filling with silent tears said enough. The guard was winning, the monsters were losing. She turned away from the still held creature and back to her sister.

“They were your mess, and now that you're back I expect you to handle their sentencing,” Celestia said this with a hard, definitive tone.

Luna merely nodded and aimed her magic at the captive, who closed her eyes and waited. She'd felt death before, the cold calm touch of the reaper. She wasn't afraid, hadn't felt that in a hundreds of years. This was simply the fate of her kind for siding with Nightmare Moon. As if they'd had a choice being creatures of the dark. Creatures of death and blood. This was the fate of all vamponies, sooner or later.

There was a tingling sensation in her stomach that grew into an ache, and finally pain. Her last act was a howl of agony, her wings finally unfurling fully in their bat-like glory, as her whole body was set ablaze from the inside out. The bright white marble of the audience chamber reflecting the light off the candles stung her eyes, as the last thing she focused on was the sweet, safe night outside the windows beyond the throne.

The next thing she knew warm air filled her lungs, along with a barrage of unfamiliar and familiar scents. She spluttered for a moment, then rocked back and forth on her hooves. Recovering, she looked around the darkness, vaguely making out a large bed to her left and a wall to her right. She should be worried, she thought, but she also should be dead. A dozen questions or more pierced her brain, but only one thing resounded into her body, sleep. With hardly a thought more she collapsed on the bed, shaking lightly with pain, and found herself once more lost in blackness.

The panic he'd had subsided after several minutes of staring and probing, yet it also returned with each new discovery. She was a pony, a My Little Pony sort of pony. Having been part of the internet phenomenon known as bronies back in the day that was an easily made observation. The fact that she was physically there, laying unconscious on his bed however, was harder to cope with. When that fact sunk in he started looking her over. He found her breathing, her light gray chest rising and falling with breath, but she had no pulse. This rose more panic than before up until he saw her fangs. Sharp, pointed, and lightly sticking out of her mouth. After that he stepped back and reexamined the sleeping mare.

She was around three feet long, give or take, and was about two and a half feet from hoof to head, again give or take. She had a light gray coat, and a sort of off pink mane, a pink that was several shades closer to gray. Her cutie mark seemed to be some sort of thick bracelet or bangle, and she had bat wings. Of course the bat wings might have been a giveaway if he was familiar with pony mythos, but considering he was just a human and talking pastel equines weren't real in his world he gave himself a pass.

Stepping quietly out of the room after several minutes, the human moved across his spacious apartment and into the kitchen. It was nearing nightfall, as he could see outside from a pair of large French doors that led to the roof of his building, and he silently wondered how long she'd been here. He'd left early that morning, only arriving home late due to a bus malfunction, so she could have been there all day or only a few hours.

Popping a few aspirin and downing a large glass of water, the human rubbed his temples and half moaned, “What have you gotten into now, Pete Powell?”

Pete's rhetorical question was answered a half hour later when the mare stepped out of his room, obviously weak and dazed. She looked around, notably outside, and gave a sigh of relief. Glad that it was night and she had no fear of the sun, the mare began looking around. That was until she laid eyes on the owner of the home.

“Well, now. How long have you been unconscious?” Pete asked the mare, slightly concerned.

The gray mare stepped backwards in shock and stared. For the first time in two hundred years she was afraid. She had no idea what this creature was, or where it would hail from. She knew it was bigger than her by almost half over, and in her state of hunger it would certainly be more powerful. She thought about running out the doors behind her, flying off into the night, but that was quickly dismissed. With no clue where she was and starvation setting in she wouldn't get far. Where ever Luna had sent her it was possibly a fate worse than death.

The bipedal creature stepped forward, and the mare held her ground despite her fear. She conceded being at this things' mercy. It knelt down in front of her, making them eye level, and looked her over. It was at this moment that the familiar scent she'd picked up earlier registered, testosterone. This was a male. After a moment it reached out with it's … whatever it had instead of forelegs and hooves, and gently ran it down the back of her neck.

“Warm,” he muttered to himself.

Finally, she worked up the nerves to speak. “What do you want?” She tried to sound strong, but it came out almost as a whimper.

A dozen thoughts rushed through Pete's mind, some of them rather dark, some of those sexual, but he banished them and looked the mare in her bright red eyes. “I want to help.”

The mare watched his eyes in return, she saw something flash in them, a hunger, but then it faded and she could see his sincerity. That, most of all, scared her. Either he didn't know what she was, or what she was didn't frighten him. If it was the second one then he really was something to fear, if it was the first … then where was she? Those thoughts were pushed suddenly aside though as she became highly aware of her fangs, a tingling pain filling them. A familiar pain.

“What's your name?” The creature asked.

“R-Ruby,” the mare stuttered, feeling her slitted eyes contract and zoned in on the neck of the being in front of her.

“Ruby,” the man repeated, casually following her gaze. “Tell me, what happens when you bite someone?”

This snapped Ruby out of her daze. “W-what? N-nothing! Why?”

Carefully, Pete reached out and touched one of Ruby's exposed fangs. “Hard to miss the blood sucking appendage.”

The mare blushed and gently bit her lip. “Guess the secret is out...”

Pete chuckled, “Not much of a secret with it staring me in the face like that. Why don't you tell me what happened, and I'll see if we can't work something out.”

“What happened?”

“Yeah, how you got here,” Pete said, stepping back and sitting on his couch.

Ruby followed cautiously and began her explanation. She talked about how she'd picked a hapless victim for the evening after working her way into a fancy Canterlot party, how she'd been spotted when her hunger over powered her common sense and she tried to snack on a neck in the streets, the chase, and Luna's supposed sentencing. All the while Pete was paying attention to every minor detail, notably was that Ruby had only failed to escape because she was hungry. It didn't take a genius to figure out what a vampire meant by hungry, or to assume that the princesses didn't give her a 'last meal.' Leading into the natural, and correct, assumption that she was still severely weak.

“So let me get this straight,” he said, removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes, “You've been abandoned in an alternate universe, with no idea how you're going to survive, or if the blood of people can sustain you, and you think Luna did this on purpose?”

“Alternate universe?”

Pete nodded, “Yeah. At least that's the only option I can think of, considering there's no talking ponies here. At least not for real. There's a cartoon, but...”

Figuring it would be better to show than tell, Pete picked up his remote and turned on the TV. Ruby jumped at first, but then settled in and watched as a news program went on. It highlighted various things, but the one thing she noticed was that every creature was mostly the same. All these tall, nearly hairless primates. Humans this one had called them.

After a little bit, Pete turned the TV back off and sighed. “Welcome to Earth, Ruby. My name is Pete Powell, and I guess I'll be taking care of you.”

Ruby blinked, “Taking care of me?”

“Well, I'm not just going to let you leave and send half the world into insanity because of a talking pony, and you're hardly in any position to take care of yourself.”

“I'm a vampony!” Ruby shouted indignantly. “We were the harbingers of Nightmare Moon's army! Bringers of death, darkness, destruction!”

Pete smiled widely, slipped off the couch, wrapped an arm around the protesting mare's neck, and snuggled against her. “You? You're fluffy and adorable.”

Ruby could feel her fangs lengthen, hungry. She could see his neck, the human's shirt neck pulled down that much due to his arm being wrapped around her. She could smell his gender, his scent, his blood. Along with that she was angry, she hadn't been seen as weak and vulnerable in hundreds of years, and she was going to show this human why. In a single motion, a single moment, she leaned forward, her cat's eye pupils dilating with anger, and sunk her fangs into his neck.

Pete gave a low hiss, and flinched slightly, but he didn't move. Honestly, he was afraid of what pulling away with something rammed into his neck could do to his veins and arteries. Ruby, however, went wide eyed as she drank. His blood was delicious, some what of a rare thing as blood flavor was like wine to vamponies, any would get you drunk but few were truly magnificent. On top of that she saw his immobility as many things, acceptance, bravery, compassion, things she hadn't experienced since she'd been pulled into the night.

She slowly removed her fangs and, on a strange instinct she didn't understand at the moment, licked the gently leaking wounds she'd made. The feeling of her tongue on his neck made Pete shiver. The two slowly pulled apart, Pete with a light smile on his face, Ruby concerned.

“Are you … stupid?” Ruby asked, looking Pete straight in the eyes.

“Maybe I am,” Pete chuckled, “But I told you, I want to help. I … guess that means keeping you fed too.” He looked around worried a bit, then back. “Um, is this a nightly thing we'll have to do?”

Ruby thought for a moment, she could say that, suck him dry in a few days and be stronger than she'd been in years. But she wouldn't gain much from that, in fact she'd be worse off. She would be alone in a world she didn't understand and couldn't live properly in. She'd been given a second chance, the second chance she'd wanted since the attack in the alley way in Canterlot two hundred years ago. She couldn't be normal in this world, but she couldn't be normal in her own world either. Here though she could live without fear.

“No, once every few days will be fine. I won't need super strength any time soon, I don't think, so I won't need a large amount of blood at once.”

Pete nodded, “Alright. Just, uh, warn me next time?”

“Yeah, I … Sure, I can do that,” Ruby blushed at having lost herself twice in such a short time.

Suddenly Pete recoiled slightly, realizing his arm was still around her. “Oh! Uh, sorry. I forgot that-”

Ruby lightly pressed up against him, though she only came up to about his shoulder. “It's okay. I don't mind.”

Pete blushed hard and slowly put his arm back around the mare, who leaned against him more and yawned lightly. She wasn't as at his mercy as she expected Pete thought. She was lost in a world she didn't understand with no way back, and honestly no desire to return, true. She still knew things about men though, she could keep him compliant with her. It was hardly any different than what she did back in Equestria. This was just a long term meal, one that was willing and happy to provide, like a catering service. All Ruby had to do was keep Pete satisfied, and she was good at that.

Ruby part 2

Author's Note

Kinda rushed, maybe, but I wrote most of this after I wrote part 1 and was thinking about making this its own thing or something, but I don't think I've got it in me to do that. Try and enjoy, and the rest of the rewrite will be along fairly soon. My editor is having some problems and I want to wait for him to get back to a steady place before I shove more work on top of him.

Ruby part 2

“If it doesn't work, if it hurts, I swear, I'll be sorry til the day I die. But please, I want you to try.” Pete Powell stood in his room, Ruby on the bed. “Celestia didn't make our sun, it's a natural thing here. You said that it's Celestia's counter magic that causes the sun to burn you because you were blessed by Nightmare Moon.”

Ruby looked to the side, afraid. “I know, but … I just don't know if I want to risk it.”

Pete stepped over to the bed and gently pushed Ruby down, placing his lips on hers in a passionate kiss. She didn't resist, rather she joined enthusiastically, wrapping her wings around the human and her forelegs around his neck. Pete slipped his hands under her and trailed down her back gently, stopping at her tail and breaking the kiss.

“I love you, Ruby,” he murmured, “I want you to have everything that was taken from you. Even the light.”

The vampony bit her lip gently, averting her eyes. Pete didn't try and keep her attention, instead he gently stroked her face and chest. Finally, Ruby looked back to him and nodded. He responded with a smile and another kiss before getting up and putting his hand on the doorknob.

“Just stand over here with me, when I open the door the light will pour in, but we won't be in it. Then you can just put a hoof in the light, if it burns I'll slam the door and we'll never try again. I'll go out, today, and buy something thick to cover those doors. Get them removed if I have to.”

Ruby nodded and gently moved into position next to Pete. The human slowly turned the knob and pulled the door open, letting light burst into the room. The mare next to him recoiled slightly, letting out a low gasp. Pete placed a hand on her back, trying to sooth her under his touch. Ruby took a deep breath and gingerly raised her right hoof toward the light. The couple stared at the hoof as it crossed the threshold into the shine. A moment passed, and nothing happened.

Ruby's breathing sped up and she pushed her whole foreleg into the light. Nothing. Wide eyed, surprised, amazed, overwhelmed, she jumped into the light. Despite her eyes stinging from having spent two hundred years in darkness, nothing happened. She leapt back out of the light and onto Pete, causing him to stumbled backwards into the wall gently. Her forehooves around his neck she kissed him passionately, which he returned with very willing gusto.

When the kiss completed, Pete stepped out into the main room of the loft, mare still around his neck. Ruby lifted a wing to shield her eyes, but giggled softly. The man laid down on the couch in the middle of the room, mare on his chest with the sunlight behind her. He basked in her sunlit features, how her washed pink hair was some how brighter in the light, the way her fur seemed to become almost white, but most of all her bright red eyes locked on his.

“Two hundred years ago,” Pete said slowly in a low tone, “A filly was taken from her home. She was beaten, tormented, and changed. I'm going to spend the rest of my life showing you how little that actually mattered.”

Ruby half purred and nibbled his neck, “It did matter though. If it weren't for the change I wouldn't have been sent here, and we wouldn't be together like this.”

Pete laughed and ran a hand through Ruby's mane. “True, though I wonder how you'll feel when this heat cycle passes.”

With a small grin, Ruby whispered in Pete's ear, “It passed two days ago.”

“It … what?”

“Hahaha, it passed two days ago. These are my genuine feelings, my silly blood banquet.”

Pete wrapped his arms around Ruby into a firm hug, and buried his face into her neck. The pink maned mare hugged back and gave an affectionate nuzzle to her new mate. Pete had acted like a pure gentlecolt the entire time Ruby had been there, until her cycle hit. She had expected him to make a romantic move on her sooner, but he'd waited until she wanted it, despite his obvious want of her. Looking back, Ruby found that she enjoyed much of the time she'd spent with him. Movies, internet, books, music, they were all very different in this world, and all of the time they'd been together the past month she had enjoyed.

And then she heard it. With her head against his neck she could feel it. The beating of his heart against the still one in her chest. He ticked away into an eventual demise, like everyone she'd ever known.

“I wish there was a way...” she muttered.

“For what?”

Ruby blushed, out of Pete's view, and said, “Nothing, just thinking out loud.”

Pete waited a moment, then ran a hand down her back, gently rubbing the spot between her wings, “You can tell me anything. I'm supposed to help you survive here.”

There was another long pause, followed by a sigh from the vampony.

“You'll die one day, but I won't.”

“I'm aware,” Pete replied, almost resolutely.

“I don't want you to. At least, I don't think I do.”

“Maybe we'll figure something out, maybe we won't. Until then we just have to enjoy our time together.” Pete took a breath, and let out a chuckle, “Enjoy the moment.”

The thought was stuck on Ruby's mind for a while, but eventually she settled into a new life. For two hundred years she'd been made to avoid the sun, but now she was free. The pair found ways to enjoy the light that came in through the doors, or from being on the roof. It was one night in particular that the thought returned though, as she laid snuggled close to Pete and could hear his heart once again.

Pete was the only being she'd ever met that accepted her at face value. That hadn't been afraid, or angry, but rather had opened up. Even her parents, when she'd tried to return home after being changed, chased her away, sent the guard after her. She believed they could work, she and Pete, but he would die one day. Ruby couldn't stand that thought. She spat a silent curse at the royal sisters for ruining her immortal life even through dimensions.

“Maybe I should have taken up worshiping Nightmare Moon like the other vamponies,” Ruby whispered irritatedly.

Moments later though there was a small surge of magic, which put Ruby on high alert, and voices came from the living room.

“Twilight,” Celestia's voice clearly rang out, “Where are we?”

Prologue (rewritten)

It was incredibly dark, and that wasn't right. It was just after noon when she'd cast the spell, Gryphos wouldn't be dark yet and she couldn't see stars. They were in a box, a cramped one at that. Twilight Sparkle wiggled and managed to pull free of the pile that was her friends, mentor, and mentor's sister. A moment later her friends followed, each one groaning lightly. Twilight turned and addressed the pile of ponies.

“Is everypony alright?”

There came a slightly blurb of yeses, yeahs, and an “uh huh” signaling that they were indeed fine. With a small sigh, Twilight turned back around and lit up her horn. The illumination revealed that the small room was mostly occupied by a bed about the size of the ones in the royal chambers in Canterlot, and some kind of dark colored box on a wooden stand at the foot of said bed. A moment later something brushed across the purple unicorn's head, causing her to turn her attention to the other side of the room. A light blue color was floating near a door, wings beating almost silently keeping it aloft.

“Rainbow,” Twilight began, but was suddenly cut off by her friend.

“I think I found the lights,” she said, some what triumphantly.

There was a soft click and a bulb above their heads filled the room with somewhat poor light. Celestia's student sighed and rubbed her face with a hoof. The room could have had anything in it, traps possibly, and Rainbow Dash, the cyan coated, rainbow maned pegasus had flipped the only switch in the room. Twilight Sparkle counted herself lucky they weren't dead, and made a quick note of everypony. Obviously, Rainbow Dash was fine, the pegasus chuckling and smiling sheepishly at her friend's undisguised irritation.

Turning around, Twilight found her friends exploring the small environment. Rarity, the whited coated, purple maned, fashion oriented, unicorn was staring aghast at the room's total blandness. Even the generally tame purple unicorn had to admit the room was eerie. Nothing on the walls, no windows, just the bed, box, and a desk with a few objects scattered on it.

The aptly named Pinkie Pie was staring at her reflection on the box at the foot of the bed. Apparently the front was made of glass, and the bubbly pink pony was making faces and giggling at her self as she did so. Twilight took heart in the fact that at the very least it kept the party pony out of trouble for a while.

“Hey, Twi! Come look at this,” Applejack, the tan, blond maned, farm pony said. She had opened a pair of doors and pulled out some very strange looking clothes. What ever information Twilight had hoped to gleam from personal affects was suddenly lost at the sight of the clothes. The shape was completely foreign to both her and Rarity, and the size suggested a fairly large creature. Each article coming in a top and bottom set.

“A better question than taste and design, though those certainly come into question, is, what needs this much clothing?” Rarity asked aloud, sparking her friend's curiosity.

Turning back around, Twilight found Luna atop the large bed, seemingly testing it. Celestia was eying her sister with a level of amusement, and exasperation. Behind them, however, curled up in the corner in a tight ball, was Fluttershy. The light yellow pegasus had her face hidden behind her long pink mane, and was whispering something almost inaudibly. As Twilight drew closer the words became more clear, and her heart steadily broke.

“I want to go home, I want to go home, I want to go home,” Fluttershy half chanted over and over.

Twilight, the personal student of Celestia, Element of Magic, and generally all around good unicorn, had to resist the urge to break down at this. It quickly sunk in what had happened. Her spell had gone wrong, but this time it wasn't some minor mistake, a little chemical explosion or ripping the page out of a book accidentally. This mishap had placed not only her life, but the lives of her friends, mentor and ruler, in possibly mortal peril. Slowly, she sunk down next to the pegasus and wrapped a foreleg around her in a gentle hug.

Standing back up and facing the collected group, all of Twilight's frustrations came to a head. All of her calculations, preparations, and studies meant nothing now. She had messed up somewhere, and no matter how much she thought on it she could not figure out where. The numbers added up, the theory was more than sound, it was time tested. This one time, however, everything went wrong for seemingly no reason.

“I just don't know what went WRONG!” She shouted, stomping a hoof to punctuate her uninhibited frustration.

The next moment it seemed as though time froze. The door on the far side of the room from Twilight burst open, revealing a large bipedal creature, about as tall as Celestia, its features contorted in a look of rage. Twilight suddenly registered the possibility that they were, inadvertently, invading another creatures home. Any chance at rationalization was lost, however, when the group caught sight of a blade. It was armed.

Celestia turned her full attention to the creature, her face hard. She subtly prepared a spell to disarm the beast, but at the last second it looked at its weapon, then quickly tossed it aside and slammed the door shut. The princess' mouth dropped in astonishment. Somehow, it knew what she was going to do. The white alicorn shared a look with her deep blue sister. A look of worry and slight fear.

Same room, 7 hours earlier

He kicked the blanket off him and groggily rose from the bed. A look at his vastly out dated cell phone told him he'd slept less than 5 hours. He'd closed his laptop around two in the morning, and it was just after six. Muttering curses to himself, Pete Powell made his way out of his small sleeping quarters and into the main of his apartment. The whole thing was one large open space with a relatively high ceiling. The general shape of the place being a giant U, with the main living space being the bottom, and the kitchen and bed room occupying the opposite tips of the U. He crossed the living area and entered into the small bathroom that existed a ways below the kitchen, and showered. Toweling off, the young man looked himself over. His flat and impossible to style dark brown hair was getting overly long, the sides covering his ears slightly and his bangs hanging in his face. His glasses were still somewhat fogged up, which caused him no end of irritation, and made him opt to forgo shaving his slight stubble. Of course, there were still the scars.

Tossing his dirty clothes and towel into the hamper he used for such a purpose, he exited the bathroom and turned right towards his kitchen. Then his dilemma happened. He was hungry, but getting to the kitchen meant crossing the gratuitous amount of sunlight that was starting to pour in through the French doors on the opposite side of the living space. Chuckling slightly to him self about how that was the biggest first world problem anyone could ever have, Pete crossed the room and had some breakfast. A breakfast of left over supper, tacos to be precise, before returning to his dark, dark room.

Casually, Pete considered getting back to work. He made his living as an online editor, proof reading about a dozen things every couple of days and making an above average profit out of it. The job kept Pete from having to leave his home very often, something that called out to the young hermit. People had never been his favorite thing, and now that he was a college graduate he had to deal with very few. College itself had been a hellish time for him, and he was glad to be done with it. Even these past two years out of it hadn't improved his attitude towards it. His experience with people had always been poor, and it had given him a very cynical view of the world. Friends turned into enemies at the drop of a hat, friendships lost over petty things, and in more than one case he'd been essentially booted from groups after the few friends he'd had became enamored with a new person that didn't like him.

Pushing away from his computer and exiting his bedroom, Pete acknowledged that he needed to get out of the house. Slipping into his casual all black wear, including jacket, the 25 year old grabbed his keys and made his way to the streets below. His combination of tired and reflective had come close to ruining his mood. He wasn't in a great mood to start with, and the sleep deprivation wasn't helping. The general bustle of the North Dakota city soothed him though. Being surrounded by people that barely even acknowledged his existence, let alone cared enough to spite him, eased him slightly.

Walking with the crowds, he made his way to a barber shop he frequented, getting his hair trimmed back down to a less intrusive length. Afterwards he took a bus to the area mall and killed a solid hour chatting with one of the cashiers at the Gamestop. Beck, the cashier, was possibly the closest thing Pete had to a friend, both twenty somethings had a vast knowledge of the gaming world, and could often talk for hours about it. Though Pete had to admit that Beck had an actual passion for the stuff, while Pete felt much more like a hobbyist.

Ultimately picking up nothing but a resurgent case of depression at his lack of drive, Pete took the slow bus back home. His phone read just after one in the afternoon when he stepped off the elevator to his top floor apartment. With his usual depressed, and somewhat surly silence, he unlocked his front door and tossed his jacket aside. Then a chill went up his spine. Quietly, he closed the door behind him and adopted a semi crouched position. He could feel that he wasn't alone. Cursing himself for forgetting his usual pocket knife, he made his way to the kitchen, sparing a quick glance to his right first making sure the bathroom was empty.

Finding the kitchen was just as deserted, he swore. His bedroom was the only other place. Pete pulled open a drawer full of cutlery and picked up a knife. It was a long kitchen knife, half dull, but with a solid five inch blade. He moved swiftly towards his room, then stopped as he drew near. He could hear voices, female voices. They sounded... confused? Then, suddenly, they stopped. All was quiet, and Pete tensed up, reaching slowly for the door knob.

“I just don't know what went WRONG!”

Pete froze. Tara Strong? Now he was confused, that didn't make any sense. Then, it maybe did. Was someone on his laptop? Browsing through his files and accidentally stumbled upon his collection of the Friendship is Magic series? Why would they turn it on? What would possess them to click that? Anger pushing inside himself, Pete decided the best option was confrontation. In a single movement he threw the door open and looked inside. His eyes slowly crawled over the room. Ponies. Real life, completely nonfictional ponies. Specifically the Elements of Harmony and the royal Princesses.

Everything stopped. Pete stared at the ponies and vice versa. It wasn't until Celestia stepped forward, her horn glowing, that Pete snapped out of it. Realizing he was standing armed in front of creatures with magical powers, he tossed the knife off to the side, and quickly slammed the door shut behind him. His back against the door, Pete stared at the south wall of his apartment directly opposite him, stunned. The dream of every brony was sitting less than five feet away from him, and he was too busy losing his mind.

“Oh, sweet Luna,” he muttered exasperatedly, only for a “Yes?” to echo from behind the door.

The human slammed both his hands into his face. Despite having just seen the mare herself moments ago, he'd somehow managed to convince himself he hadn't. He spent a few minutes slapping himself repeatedly muttering “wake up” under his breath before he was finally convinced he wasn't dreaming. Immediately following there was a knock from the other side of the door, causing him to tense up, and painfully dig his fingernails into his palms.

“Excuse me,” the voice of Celestia called, summoning to Pete's mind images of the white alicorn and her ever flowing colored mane. “We mean you no harm, and apologize for the intrusion. We would like to find out where we are, and return to our home as soon as possible.”

Pete had long been a fan of the multiverse theory, and that left him with a very dark possibility. Just because they looked like the ponies from the show, it didn't mean they were. For all he knew, they could be evil. Which of course made his plan utter crap, but he was banking very hard on the “mane six” to still be the correct bearers for their Element of Harmony, particularly, Applejack.

“I'll let you out, on one condition,” he waited a beat, “I need to hear from … Applejack, that no pony is going to hurt me.”

He internally facepalmed at saying “no pony” out loud in real life, and waited for a response. Nearly a full minute passed as he stared at the wall across from him, quiet deliberations going on beyond the door behind him. A slight worry filled him, but eventually a voice called out.

“Why me?” the southern accented pony asked.

Pete gulped, “What's your Element of Harmony?”

A pause. “Honesty,” she finally responded.

“Right, so if you say that I'm not getting hurt...” He left it hanging, he was feeling implausible as it was. He didn't feel like elaborating further, though he was sure they got the gist.

“Alright, I promise,” she said after another minute of quiet talking between the mares.

Standing up and shaking slightly, Pete turned around and slowly opened the door, letting the ponies out. With the door open the collective of mares looked at him, each one eying various parts of him, hands, head, torso, legs most notably. Finally, he slowly backed away, letting them exit the room.

Rainbow Dash was the first out, stretching her wings and chuckling slightly at the high ceiling of the apartment. Next came Rarity, the white coated mare steadily becoming more shocked at the surroundings the more she saw. Twilight was next, though her attention continually drifted back to the human. Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and the princesses were last, each going in different directions.

As he watched them all file out, Pete felt the darkness in his stomach that had been eating at him all day peak in ways he'd never felt before. Having been a fan of the Friendship is Magic era of My Little Pony, Pete had found Equestria to be a magical idealistic place. If not free of war and hate, at least much better about it. His contact with humans had rubbed him raw from a young age, and the more he learned about history, the wars, the reasons, the stupidity, it made him jaded. A part of him hated the pastel ponies in front of him, spared the things he knew, the things that happened sometimes right outside his building.

Yet another part cried out against that one, rejoicing in their arrival. How many fanfics had he read about ponies taking a human with them to Equestria? This was the dream, right in front of him, this was the typical brony dream. His hatred of them, and his new level of self loathing caused him to back into the far corner of the room, curling up with his head on his knees in shock.

It didn't take long before this caught the attention of Celestia. In fact, her eyes hadn't left the human since they'd emerged from the room. She gently stepped over to him, stopping a few feet away, the sunlight from the doors to her right reflecting off her white coat like a spotlight on Pete's misery. She watched him now, up close, and was almost astonished at his reaction. He was watching with blank eyes at what most would consider almost invaders in their home. He made no move to speak to them, stop them, anything. The human was playing dead, hoping they would ignore him and move on.

“Surely you don't find us dangerous still,” she asked him curiously.

“No,” Pete responded monotone, “I just... I … I can't.”

“Can't what?” Twilight asked, stepping up next to her mentor.

“I... you all CAN'T be real. Where I'm from, HERE, you're a-a cartoon. A child's show that a bunch of adults started watching for lots of different reasons. Now here you are, all … real and stuff and...” Pete put his face in his hands, “Oh hell, I'm dead aren't I?”

By this point the rest of the ponies had gathered around the corner of the room and were now looking at each other in confusion. There was a tense silence that not even Pinkie felt comfortable breaking. It was Celestia that finally did, her aim for more information.

“Why would you be dead, human?”

“Because,” Pete began, head still in his hands, “If I'm not dead then that means this is real and if you're all real that means I've been sitting here in some crapsack world for 25 years.”

“It can't be all that bad,” Applejack said, looking out the French doors and at the city scape. The sun was making its way across the West sky in its afternoon travels, heading towards sunset. The light gleamed off the tall, glass buildings making parts of the city almost glow to the mares' eyes. “Ah mean, some of it looks a little dull but... can't be all bad.”

Pete looked up, and he snapped. Every single thing inside of him shattered into a million pieces, like a window pane being ripped apart by soundwaves. It blasted straight outward, assaulting anyone nearby. His shattering was a long winded hate speech about the darkest natures of humanity. He let loose with everything he felt was wrong with the world, gave the darkest potential philosophies he could remember, covered every war, ever reason behind them, the people that started them, the people that still supported those ideals hundreds of years later. He spoke with a passion that he wished he felt anywhere else, and as he spoke the mares listened.

The gusto was taken from every last one of them, except Celestia who remained stoic from start to finish. Some of them almost fainted at hearing what people had done, and it gave Pete a sickening sense of satisfaction to see that on their faces. When he was done, though he didn't say it aloud, it was himself he hated most. He stood up on his closing line, and looked Celestia in the eyes, the only one that hadn't flinched under his barrage. She held firm, matching his gaze, and saw something in his eyes.

The Princess of the Sun had been around for thousands of years. She had seen many things, and what their unexpected host was suffering from was no different. He was angry, yes, but also heavily exhausted. The toll of their arrival, and perhaps other things, weighed heavily on his mind, and it was evident in his gaze. His pupils were dialated, his eyeballs themselves were slightly spasming, among other body signs that Celestia was familiar with. He was tired, dead tired. Part of her wondered if it was common for humans to function in this state, but his actions said otherwise. Thankfully, Celestia did not need to say anything.

With an irritated sigh, Pete broke eye contact and moved back towards the room the ponies had left, now identified as his bedroom thanks to context. “I'm going to bed,” he said as he moved past them, “Do whatever and leave. I don't care, just … just go.” His tone defeated, the human closed the door to his room, shutting off the light as he did, and laying down on his bed.

“... is it really that bad here?” Fluttershy almost squeaked.

Pete sighed, how could he have forgotten one of the most popular of the Elements?

“Yeah. It is. There's … there's some good in it, but there's a lot more evil. There's blatantly a lot more evil. People can be good, but with how many of us there are... it just doesn't suit our interests to be good consistently.”

Fluttershy rose and moved in the dark and quiet, Pete unaware of her movements until the door to his room opened. As an after thought he rolled over and faced the door as it was being closed.

“Hey,” Pete called. The door stopped, then opened a little. “Tell them not to go outside, okay? I don't like the idea of what could happen to them out there. I don't trust this world and I … I'd hate to hear that something bad happened to any of them because of it.”

Once more the door closed and Pete was left alone in the dark. Just the man and his thoughts. He laid back down and sighed heavily. A dream had become a nightmare. As he rolled over and pulled the blankets over his head, his mind chimed in with its own thoughts.

“Once upon a time, in the not so magical land of America, a man's heroes magically appeared in his house. Instead of treating them with kindness and respect like they'd taught him years ago, he got bitchy, left them alone, and will probably wake up to an empty house, and continue his hollow existence. Good job, asshole.”

“Brain,” he muttered aloud, “If I could stomach alcohol, I would KILL you with it.”

Epilogue

“He is holding steady,” Luna reported to Celestia, “But … I think we were some what too late.”

Celestia paced her quarters, “How do you mean?”

“He is still alive, but nothing they have tried can bring him back. Taking him off support sees his systems failing.”

The princess of the Sun sighed, “In other words, he's dying.”

Luna nodded slowly, but then paused. “There … is something.”

Celestia already knew what her sister was thinking. It broke the laws of nature, the laws they had set up, but neither of them felt right letting Pete Powell die here now. His sacrifice had allowed them to return to their world, and here they were gods. Celestia looked out her window at the blue sky, remembering just two weeks ago when they had gotten back home. The way Pete had smiled as he fell. He knew. He expected it, or at least had considered the possibility.

“Do it,” Celestia said, finally turning back to Luna. “We created the rules, we can bend or break them as we see fit.”

Luna nodded gravely and turned to leave. She walked out of Canterlot castle and to the hospital that Pete was held at, the ponies she passed on the street either genuflected or moved out of her way. The streets had seen more royalty than ever before the past two weeks, and everypony knew why. The strange creature the sisters had brought in had not gone unnoticed, nor the fact that the famous Elements of Harmony, not to mention the royals themselves, visited it regularly.

Luna entered the hospital and found the doctor in charge. She gave him a list of things she would require and told him to move Pete to the infirmary at the castle. The doctor was surprised, but he naturally obeyed his princess. By sun down Pete was laying in a bed in the castle, and Luna had sealed the door. She had spent the day preparing for this, and she had been given permission by Celestia. Solemnly, Luna promised to herself that Pete would live, and not only that he would be better than before.